Papers by Claudia Brumbaugh
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Journal of Open Psychology Data, 2014
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, 2016
Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 2013
Unlike many social psychological theories that are limited by the Western cultural context in whi... more Unlike many social psychological theories that are limited by the Western cultural context in which they were developed, attachment theory is an exception in that it has been examined across cultures. However, existing cross-cultural research on attachment is limited in scope: there is little to no research on how attachment distributions vary based on ethnicity and religion, and it remains unclear which aspects of culture influence attachment outcomes. The current study expands the body of research on attachment theory by examining attachment as a function of country of origin, ethnicity, religious denomination, individualism/collectivism, and acculturation. We assessed attachment in an ethnically and religiously diverse sample that encompassed over fifty countries of origin, and found that attachment patterns varied based on region of origin, collectivism, acculturation, and ethnicity. These findings have broad implications, both for clinical usage and for empirical cross-cultural understanding.
Although replication is a central tenet of science, direct replications are rare in psychology. T... more Although replication is a central tenet of science, direct replications are rare in psychology. This research tested variation in the replicability of 13 classic and contemporary effects across 36 independent samples totaling 6,344 participants. In the aggregate, 10 effects replicated consistently. One effect-imagined contact reducing prejudice-showed weak support for replicability. And two effects-flag priming influencing conservatism and currency priming influencing system justification-did not replicate. We compared whether the conditions such as lab versus online or US versus international sample predicted effect magnitudes. By and large they did not. The results of this small sample of effects suggest that replicability is more dependent on the effect itself than on the sample and setting used to investigate the effect.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2014
The goal of the present research was to examine the coregulation of partner-specific attachment s... more The goal of the present research was to examine the coregulation of partner-specific attachment security in romantic relationships. We studied a sample of 172 couples 5 times over 1 year. At each assessment wave, partners independently completed a self-report measure of their security in the relationship. We operationalized attachment coregulation both as direct impacts (i.e., prospective effects of one partner on the other) and coordination (i.e., correlated changes across time). Results indicated that, after taking into account people’s prototypical levels of security, changes in security were coordinated within couples.
Personal Relationships, 2007
This study was designed to examine how working models of attachment are transferred to novel rela... more This study was designed to examine how working models of attachment are transferred to novel relationships. Two targets were created that resembled either participants' romantic partner or their parent. A third control target did not share overlapping features with participants' significant others. Both global and specific working models of attachment influenced how participants perceived new people. The target manipulation also had a main effect on feelings toward the targets: Priming the representation of one's partner evoked fears of rejection (attachment-related anxiety) and reduced defensiveness (attachment-related avoidance). Furthermore, relative to the control target, participants had a more positive overall attitude toward targets that resembled a partner but did not feel more positively toward targets that resembled a parent.
Personal Relationships, 2014
Research has shown that people select securely attached individuals as their first choice when as... more Research has shown that people select securely attached individuals as their first choice when asked to choose among secure or insecure partner prototypes. Despite this pattern, not everyone chooses a secure partner in real life. The goal of the reported studies was to examine factors that lead people to select insecure mates. Specifically, the roles of flattery, appearance, and status were assessed. In the first study, we found that flattery increased attraction to insecure partners. Study 2 showed that men preferred physical beauty over security. In Study 3, anxious women were attracted to high-status insecure men. These findings help explain why people may sometimes end up with insecure partners despite their professed preference for secure companions. When deciding on a mate, people are faced with an array of options. In an ideal world people would consistently select romantic partners who provide them with a supportive relationship. In reality, however, not all individuals end up in healthy relationships (e.g., Petersen, Moracco, Goldstein, & Clark, 2004). Furthermore, people's accounts of what they most desire in mates do not always correspond to the features of their actual romantic partners (Botwin, Buss, & Shackelford, 1997), and recent work shows that reported preferences sometimes have little prediction for real-world attraction (Eastwick & Finkel, 2008a). Evidence such as this suggests that people are often unsuccessful in obtaining what they reportedly desire in romantic partners. Among the characteristics that people find attractive in potential mates, features that
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2012
The present research examined the development of attachment bonds in adult romantic relationships... more The present research examined the development of attachment bonds in adult romantic relationships using a cross-sectional internet survey (Study 1) and a longitudinal study (Study 2). Results suggested that attachment features and functions emerge in a specific sequence that begins with proximity-seeking, followed by safe haven, and finally secure base. Our cross-sectional data indicated that people who had been in relationships for longer were more likely to use their partners for attachment functions. However, in our longitudinal study, after controlling for relationship length and age, there was relatively little change in attachment features and functions over time. The data also indicated that adult attachment bonds might develop more quickly than has been previously assumed.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2014
A “rebound relationship” is commonly understood as a relationship that is initiated shortly after... more A “rebound relationship” is commonly understood as a relationship that is initiated shortly after a romantic breakup—before the feelings about the former relationship have been resolved. However, little research has examined the consequences of quickly beginning new romantic relationships after another has ended. In two studies we examined people who experienced a breakup and assessed their well-being, their feelings about their ex-partner, and whether they were seeing someone new. Analyses indicated that people in new relationships were more confident in their desirability and had more resolution over their ex-partner. Among those in new relationships, the speed with which they began their relationship was associated with greater psychological and relational health. Overall, these findings suggest that rebound relationships may be more beneficial than typically believed.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2005
Although the evolutionary functions of attachment in infant-caregiver relationships are undispute... more Although the evolutionary functions of attachment in infant-caregiver relationships are undisputed, it is unclear what functions-if any-attachment serves in adult romantic relationships. The objective of this research was to examine the evolution and function of adult attachment (i.e., pair bonding) by applying comparative and phylogenetic methods to archival data collected on 2 diverse samples of mammalian species. The authors found that species exhibiting adult attachment were more likely than others to be characterized by paternal care, developmental immaturity or neoteny, small social groups, and small body sizes. The authors also used phylogenetic techniques to reconstruct the evolution of adult attachment and test alternative evolutionary models of the comparative correlates of pair bonding. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that the relationship between paternal care and adult attachment may be a functional one (i.e., due to convergent evolution) but that the relationship between neoteny and adult attachment may be due to homology (i.e., shared ancestry). Discussion focuses on the potential of comparative and phylogenetic methods for advancing the science of social and personality psychology.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011
One of the core assumptions of attachment theory is that attachment representations are stable ov... more One of the core assumptions of attachment theory is that attachment representations are stable over time. Unfortunately, the data on attachment stability have been ambiguous, and as a result, alternative theoretical perspectives have evolved to explain them. The objective of the present research was to evaluate alternative models of stability by studying adults in 2 intensive longitudinal investigations. Specifically, we assessed attachment representations in 1 sample (N ϭ 203) daily over a 30-day period and in the other sample (N ϭ 388) weekly over a year. Analyses show that the patterns of stability that exist in adult attachment are most consistent with a prototype model-a model assuming that there is a stable factor underlying temporary variations in attachment. Moreover, although the Big Five personality traits exhibited a pattern of stability that was similar to that of attachment, they did not account for the stability observed in attachment.
Journal of Personality, 2006
According to adult attachment theory, individual differences in attachment-related anxiety reflec... more According to adult attachment theory, individual differences in attachment-related anxiety reflect variation in individuals' vigilance to cues relevant to appraising and monitoring the availability and responsiveness of significant others. To investigate this assumption, the authors adopted a morph movie paradigm in which participants were shown movies of faces in which an emotional facial expression changed gradually to a neutral one (Study 1) or a neutral expression changed to an emotional one (Studies 2-4). Participants were asked to judge the point at which the emotional expression had disappeared or emerged, respectively. Individuals who were highly anxious with respect to attachment were more likely to perceive the offset (Study 1) as well as the onset (Studies 2 and 3) of the facial expressions of emotion earlier than other people.
Journal of Adult Development, 2014
ABSTRACT Attachment theory proposes that representations of attachment figures are transferred be... more ABSTRACT Attachment theory proposes that representations of attachment figures are transferred between relationships, resulting in stable relational experiences. The current study used a transference paradigm to examine how parental and best friend attachment representations influence perceptions of new relationship partners in emerging adulthood. We discovered that close friendships influenced attachment anxiety and avoidance experienced specifically with friend-like others, while parental relationships affected feelings of anxiety toward a variety of people. Several relationship factors, such as the importance of the friend relationship, moderated the transference process. Our findings suggest that emerging adults’ current relationships have an impact on their reactions toward novel individuals, and emerging adults’ feelings about their existing relationship partners color their future social experiences.
European Psychiatry, 2002
Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 2013
Personality&a... more Personality's link to emotional experience has been demonstrated, but specific biological responses to emotion as a function of personality have not been well-established. Here, the association between personality and physiological responses (heart rate, skin conductance, and respiration) to emotional videos was assessed. One-hundred sixty-nine participants self-reported on their Big 5 personality traits and underwent ambulatory monitoring as they watched four brief video clips from primetime television content showing scenes containing violence, fear, sadness, and tension. Generally, the negatively-toned emotional scenes provoked increases in skin conductance response and declines in heart rate. We found that physiological outcomes depended on the particular emotional scene and on personality, most notably Extraversion and Neuroticism. Extraversion, and to a lesser degree, Neuroticism, were associated with increases in autonomic arousal responses to the scenes. Gender also interacted with personality to predict responses, such that women who scored higher on measures of Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Conscientious tended to show more physiological arousal than men. Overall, the emotional scenes evoked increases in arousal and more controlled attention. The findings are discussed in context of the limited capacity model and shed light on how personality and gender affect physiological reactions to emotional experiences in everyday life.
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Papers by Claudia Brumbaugh