The relationship between individuals with fearful-avoidant adult attachment orientation and early neural responses to emotional content: An event-related potentials (ERPs) study.

Objective: Adult attachment orientation affects the interactions of individuals with others. Fearful-avoidant individuals are characterized by both high anxiety and high avoidance. This study examines the response of individuals with fearful-avoidant attachment orientation to neutral, emotionally positive, or emotionally negative visual stimuli. Method: Participants included 119 undergraduate students (91 female), mean age 23.5 ± 3.6 years: 30 fearful-avoidant, 32 secure, 28 anxious-preoccupied, and 29 dismissive-avoidant. The response of individuals with fearful-avoidant attachment orientation to IAPS emotional and neutral pictures was measured using Event-Related Potential (ERP), and compared to individuals with dismissive-avoidance or anxious-preoccupied attachment orientations (with a secure attachment group as control). The study focused on early time reaction, as defined by the P1, N1, and P2 components (110–165, 165–215, and 215–280 ms poststimulus, respectively). Results: We find that individuals with fearful-avoidant attachment orientation display a reaction to emotional (positive or negative) cues, at the P1 and P2 components, that is significantly different than that of individuals with anxious-preoccupied attachment, but is similar to that of individuals with dismissive-avoidant attachment. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the initial response to emotional stimuli of individuals with fearful-avoidant attachment is dominated by avoidance, rather than anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) General Scientific Summary—This is the first study to explore the early electrophysiological response of individuals with fearful-avoidant attachment orientation to emotional stimuli. The present study offers insight into how individuals with this attachment orientation process, initially, emotional stimuli.