Attachment and emotions. Factors of emotional responses play a central role in the attachment theory. The differences in the style of attachment are associated with variations in emotional expression and regulation of emotion in children and adults.
N. Collins (1996) proposed that the attachment style would be directly and indirectly related to emotional responses, and that the link between attachment style and features of the conduct would be mediated by emotions and subjective explanations. According to the attachment styles would have differences in appreciation and interpretation of events with emotional components. Thus, for example in painful situations, ansiosos-ambivalentes people have a low pain tolerance and they tend to respond with fear and anxiety whenever there is any break in your environment. While the confident adults and with Avoidant attachment style, they have lower levels of negative attention. In addition, confident adults recognize moderate levels of pain, change adults with Avoidant attachment style deny pain actively.
Insecure people feel more distressed emotionally than any other style of attachment, since they tend to see situations in a more negative way (Collins, N. 1996). The different strategies to regulate and express emotions, evoke automatically according to the style of attachment of the people. (Fiske & Pavelchak, cited in Collins, N. 1996). In one study more specific about emotions, discussed the idea of Bowlby on the critical role that they play the styles of attachment on the experience of anger. Bowlby postulated that anger is a functional reaction of protest to others and insecure attachments to transform this neuronal response (wrath of hope) to a dysfunctional anger (wrath of desperation). (Mikulincer, M. 1998 a). Attachment and personality variables. Several researchers in different studies have tried to prove that the different attachment styles are associated to personal circumstances. Thus, Shaven and Brennan discussed the relationship between attachment styles and 5 large factors of personality, finding that certain individuals were less neurotic, more outgoing and more compliant than the insecure that were more shy, uncertain and anxious (Bourbeau, l. et al 1998). Conclusion the theory of attachment, especially the one proposed by Bowlby, has been very useful, since it has engendered various researches and studies on varied aspects of human behavior, which corresponds to what social psychologists consider as a good theory, i.e., guide and stimulate research, generating various scenarios to verify them. The theory seems quite useful, since it allows knowing, inferred from knowledge of the style of attachment of a person, many of their personal characteristics that are not so evident. However, the classifications cannot be considered as strict or rigid, so while they represent a frame of reference, do not determine a specific behavior, therefore, are not always absolute predictions. This is reflected in many studies that give account of the personality and ways of behaving, often independent of the attachment style and more closely related to a situation or specific scope, as happens in the interpersonal area * references…-Baldwin, M., Keelan, j., Fehr, B., Enns, V. & Koh – Rangarajoo, e. (1996). Social – cognitive conceptualization of attachment working models: Availability and accessibility effects. Journal of personality and social psychology, 71, 1, 94-109. -Bourbeau, l., Diehl, M., Elnick, a. & Labouvie-Vief, g. (1998). Adult attachment styles: Their relations to family context and personality. Journal of personality and social psychology, 74, 6, 1656-1669. -Mikulincer, M. (1995). Attachment style and the mental representation of the self. Journal of personality and social psychology, 69, 6, 1203-1215.