Investigating autobiographical memory in relation to attachment anxiety and avoidance: self-defining memories across relational contexts

Abstract

Early experiences with attachment figures are argued to lead to internal working models, which incorporate representations of self, others, and self-other relationships. These representations influence information processing and affect regulation in adulthood. Previous studies showed that attachment anxiety is related to heightened accessibility of negative memories whereas avoidance is related to defensive organization of memory for attachment-related stimuli. The two main aims of the present study were 1) to investigate how self-defining memories in different relational contexts differ from each other in terms of narrative (i.e. specificity and integration) and phenomenological (e.g. rehearsal) characteristics, and 2) to examine the extent to which individual differences in these characteristics can be accounted for by attachment anxiety and avoidance. Participants (57 females, 54 males) filled out the Experiences in Close Relationships – Revised (ECR-R) Scale, wrote selfdefining memories for four different relational contexts, and answered questions in relation to phenomenological characteristics and centrality of each memory. Results indicated that neither type of memory, nor attachment style was related to specificity and integration of self-defining memories. However, attachment anxiety positively influenced the degree of importance and centrality attributed to personal experiences as well as the negative affective content of these experiences. Results showed that people high on attachment anxiety more frequently thought about their relationship experiences whereas high levels of avoidance manifested itself as a tendency to communicate relationship experiences less. Additionally, women and men differed in terms of their subjective experiences about close relationships. Furthermore, close relationship memories involving different attachment figures differed in terms of their phenomenological characteristics. Overall, these findings suggest that attachment style and type of relational context influence phenomenological, but not narrative, characteristics of self-defining memories in conceptually meaningful ways.