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Working models of attachment and person perception processes
Author(s) -
Zhang Fang,
Hazan Cindy
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6811.00015
Subject(s) - psychology , perception , attachment theory , social psychology , concordance , possession (linguistics) , anxiety , style (visual arts) , dimension (graph theory) , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , archaeology , neuroscience , psychiatry , pure mathematics , history
This study investigated the effects of attachment working models on social perception processes. Participants estimated the number of behavioral instances they would require to confirm and disconfirm hypothetical others’ possession of various traits. The attachment dimension of avoidance was associated with a defensively conservative style of social perception. High scorers on avoidance required more evidence to make a positive judgment and also more evidence to reject a negative judgment. In contrast, the attachment dimension of anxiety was associated with a relatively impulsive and labile perceptional style. High scorers on anxiety tended to require less evidence to make both positive and negative judgments of others. Results are discussed in terms of their concordance with previous findings and their implications for research on attachment and social perception.