Endogenous estradiol levels are associated with attachment avoidance and implicit intimacy motivation

Estradiol has been linked with attachment and caregiving processes in humans and other mammals; however, relations between estradiol and personality constructs relevant to intimate relationships have not yet been explored. In the present sample of 100 adult participants (52 men, 48 women), we examined endogenous estradiol levels in relation to two personality constructs that predict comfort with and desire for close, intimate relationships—attachment style and implicit intimacy motivation. In both men and women, estradiol levels were predicted by an interaction between a dimension of attachment style—attachment avoidance—and implicit intimacy motivation. Specifically, the highest estradiol levels were observed among participants whose explicit traits support the expression of their implicit motives, that is, those characterized by both low avoidance and high intimacy motivation. Our findings provide novel evidence that endogenous estradiol levels are associated with relationship-relevant personality constructs in theoretically meaningful ways. These findings also highlight the importance of considering interactions between implicit and explicit personality constructs in the study of the biological bases of personality.     

Is friendship akin to kinship?

Although unrelated friends are genetically equivalent to strangers, several lines of reasoning suggest that close friendship may sometimes activate processes more relevant to kinship and that this may be especially true for women. We compared responses to strangers, friends, and kin in two studies designed to address distinct domains for which kinship is known to have functional significance: incest avoidance and nepotism. Study 1 examined emotional responses to imagined sexual contact with kin, friends, and strangers. Results revealed that women, compared to men, treated friends more like kin. Study 2 examined benevolent attributions to actual kin, friends, and strangers. Results revealed that women treated friends very much like kin, whereas men treated friends very much like strangers. The current findings support a domain-specific over a domain-general approach to understanding intimate relationships and raise a number of interesting questions about the modular structure of cognitive and affective processes involved in these relationships.     

Kin Relationships and the Caregiving Biases of Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles

Paternity certainty and matrilineal family ties have been used to explain the asymmetric caregiving of grandparents and aunts and uncles. The proximate mechanisms underlying biased kin investment, however, remain unclear. A central question of the study presented here was whether the parent-kin relationship is an important link in the caregiving. In a two-generational questionnaire study, we asked subjects to estimate the intensity of their relationships to parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles (emotional closeness, investment received in childhood). In addition, the subjects’ parents rated their emotional closeness to their parents and siblings. We found that the parent-kin relationship was closely linked to the relatives’ child care and could partly explain asymmetric caregiving. Maternal aunts played a special role as caregivers. Especially the mother’s younger or last-born sister cared intensively for nieces and nephews, regardless of her closeness to the subjects’ mother.     

Attachment styles and emotional content, stress, and conflict in dreams of romantic partners.

Expanding on previous research investigating the link between dreams and attachment, participants in committed dating relationships were recruited to fill out dream diaries for 1 week. It was hypothesized that when dreaming about romantic partners (attachment figures), dream content would vary by attachment style, such that insecurely attached individuals would experience a different quality of dream, emotionally and cognitively. At Time 1, participants completed a self-report measure of attachment style, and then completed a dream diary at home each morning for 7 days. Dreams that contained romantic partners were coded by double-blind research assistants for emotional content, with a focus on attachment-related emotions and stressful expressions. Anxious-attached and avoidant-attached participants experienced significantly more stress and conflict, and scored significantly higher on specific emotions such as anxiety and jealousy in such dreams. Secure scores did not correlate with any specific or general emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Involvement of Right STS in Audio-Visual Integration for Affective Speech Demonstrated Using MEG

Speech and emotion perception are dynamic processes in which it may be optimal to integrate synchronous signals emitted from different sources. Studies of audio-visual (AV) perception of neutrally expressed speech demonstrate supra-additive (i.e., where AV>[unimodal auditory+unimodal visual]) responses in left STS to crossmodal speech stimuli. However, emotions are often conveyed simultaneously with speech; through the voice in the form of speech prosody and through the face in the form of facial expression. Previous studies of AV nonverbal emotion integration showed a role for right (rather than left) STS. The current study therefore examined whether the integration of facial and prosodic signals of emotional speech is associated with supra-additive responses in left (cf. results for speech integration) or right (due to emotional content) STS. As emotional displays are sometimes difficult to interpret, we also examined whether supra-additive responses were affected by emotional incongruence (i.e., ambiguity). Using magnetoencephalography, we continuously recorded eighteen participants as they viewed and heard AV congruent emotional and AV incongruent emotional speech stimuli. Significant supra-additive responses were observed in right STS within the first 250 ms for emotionally incongruent and emotionally congruent AV speech stimuli, which further underscores the role of right STS in processing crossmodal emotive signals.     

Ethnographic closeness: methodological reflections on the interplay of engagement and detachment in immersive ethnographic research

With the reflexive turn in the social sciences, emotional engagement is an inevitable and crucial part of data-gathering and analysis. However, there is a glaring gap in methodological discussions to this end. Presenting ethnographic research into end of life with people living at home in England with heart failure, we argue for a methodological blend of engagement and detachment that shifts throughout the research process, and that sensory experience is a core part of engagement. We offer ethnographic examples which present and explore some alternatives to emotional engagement and objective detachment: (1) moving with participants to facilitate engagement during fieldwork through shared sensory experience; (2) detachment as a different way of relating when exiting the field and drawing participant relationships to a close; and (3) ethnographic closeness as the interplay of engagement and detachment in participant debriefing and data analysis. Based on well-established anthropological concepts, and taking both engagement and detachment as embodied and relational, we develop a notion of ethnographic closeness in which detachment is a necessary part. Our detailed methodological discussion thus offers theoretically grounded possibilities and alternatives for approaching and managing the core tension of ‘how close is too close?’ in ethnographic practice. Further contributions supporting researchers in navigating ethnographic research are needed.     

Social discounting: The effect of outcome uncertainty

The purpose of the study was to determine the lowest hypothetical amount a participant would keep for himself/herself, preferring it over a reward that he/she would have shared with another individual representing various levels of past reciprocation. Other manipulated aspects were: emotional closeness of the receiver (close vs. distant person), procedure for deciding on how to share the reward (mutual decision vs. decision made by partner) and amount of reward to be shared (PLN 494 vs. PLN 49,400). It was found that preference for the reward to be shared increased as a function of reciprocity, and that it is higher when sharing with an emotionally close person, when the decision does not depend entirely on the partner, and when sharing a small reward. The effect of the level of reciprocity was the smallest when the reward was shared with an emotionally close person and the decision was mutual.     

It's the recipient that counts: spending money on strong social ties leads to greater happiness than spending on weak social ties

Previous research has shown that spending money on others (prosocial spending) increases happiness. But, do the happiness gains depend on who the money is spent on? Sociologists have distinguished between strong ties with close friends and family and weak ties—relationships characterized by less frequent contact, lower emotional intensity, and limited intimacy. We randomly assigned participants to reflect on a time when they spent money on either a strong social tie or a weak social tie. Participants reported higher levels of positive affect after recalling a time they spent on a strong tie versus a weak tie. The level of intimacy in the relationship was more important than the type of relationship; there was no significant difference in positive affect after recalling spending money on a family member instead of a friend. These results add to the growing literature examining the factors that moderate the link between prosocial behaviour and happiness.     

Dynamic emotional and neural responses to music depend on performance expression and listener experience

Apart from its natural relevance to cognition, music provides a window into the intimate relationships between production, perception, experience, and emotion. Here, emotional responses and neural activity were observed as they evolved together with stimulus parameters over several minutes. Participants listened to a skilled music performance that included the natural fluctuations in timing and sound intensity that musicians use to evoke emotional responses. A mechanical performance of the same piece served as a control. Before and after fMRI scanning, participants reported real-time emotional responses on a 2-dimensional rating scale (arousal and valence) as they listened to each performance. During fMRI scanning, participants listened without reporting emotional responses. Limbic and paralimbic brain areas responded to the expressive dynamics of human music performance, and both emotion and reward related activations during music listening were dependent upon musical training. Moreover, dynamic changes in timing predicted ratings of emotional arousal, as well as real-time changes in neural activity. BOLD signal changes correlated with expressive timing fluctuations in cortical and subcortical motor areas consistent with pulse perception, and in a network consistent with the human mirror neuron system. These findings show that expressive music performance evokes emotion and reward related neural activations, and that music's affective impact on the brains of listeners is altered by musical training. Our observations are consistent with the idea that music performance evokes an emotional response through a form of empathy that is based, at least in part, on the perception of movement and on violations of pulse-based temporal expectancies.     

Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance Influence Pet Choice and Pet-directed Behaviors

Attachment theory is a useful lens through which to examine both perceptions and selection of companion animals. Study 1 compared perceptions of dogs and cats, and found that dogs were perceived as having more positive relationship qualities and secure attachment-related characteristics, whereas cats were perceived as having more negative relationship qualities and avoidant attachment-related characteristics. In addition, people perceived relationships with dogs to involve less avoidance and less anxiety relative to relationships with people. In study 2, which built on the findings of study 1, attachment avoidance was negatively associated with wanting to own a pet, whereas attachment anxiety was positive associated with wanting to own a pet. These attachment dimensions were not associated with wanting to own a dog, but lower avoidance and higher anxiety were associated with wanting to own a cat. Study 3 was a longitudinal study of SPCA-type shelter visitors (510 participants, with 169 reporting a recent pet adoption). Lower attachment anxiety predicted recently adopting a dog rather than a cat, though neither anxiety nor avoidance predicted adopting a cat. Individuals who wanted a pet in order to facilitate human relationships were more likely to adopt a dog than a cat. Those high in attachment avoidance reported turning to their pet as a replacement for human companionship, and those high in attachment anxiety reported feeling more concern about their pets requiring more attention. Attachment anxiety and avoidance may influence the decision whether or not to adopt a pet, as well as the motivation underlying the adoption choice. Attachment also may influence the type of pet chosen (i.e., dog versus cat). In addition, attachment may influence the nature of the human–animal relationship, such as the time spent together, and the security felt regarding the relationship.     

Emotional Meaning in Context in Relation to Hypomanic Personality Traits: An ERP Study

The ability to integrate contextual information is important for the comprehension of emotional and social situations. While some studies have shown that emotional processes and social cognition are impaired in people with hypomanic personality trait, no results have been reported concerning the neurophysiological processes mediating the processing of emotional information during the integration of contextual social information in this population. We therefore chose to conduct an ERP study dealing with the integration of emotional information in a population with hypomanic personality trait. Healthy participants were evaluated using the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS), and ERPs were recorded during a linguistic task in which participants silently read sentence pairs describing short social situations. The first sentence implicitly conveyed the positive or negative emotional state of a character. The second sentence was emotionally congruent or incongruent with the first sentence. We analyzed the difference in the modulation of two components (N400 and LPC) in response to the emotional word present at the end of the “target” sentences as a function of the HPS score and the emotional valence of the context. Our results showed a possible modulation of the N400 component in response to both positive and negative context among the participants who scored high on the Mood Volatility subscale of the Hypomanic Personality Scale. These results seem to indicate that the participants with hypomanic personality traits exhibited specificities in the integration of emotions at the level of the early-mobilized neurocognitive processes (N400). Participants with hypomanic personality traits found it difficult to integrate negative emotional contexts, while simultaneously exhibiting an enhanced integration of positive emotional contexts.     

Temporal-Spatial Neural Activation Patterns Linked to Perceptual Encoding of Emotional Salience

It is well known that we continuously filter incoming sensory information, selectively allocating attention to what is important while suppressing distracting or irrelevant information. Yet questions remain about spatiotemporal patterns of neural processes underlying attentional biases toward emotionally significant aspects of the world. One index of affectively biased attention is an emotional variant of an attentional blink (AB) paradigm, which reveals enhanced perceptual encoding for emotionally salient over neutral stimuli under conditions of limited executive attention. The present study took advantage of the high spatial and temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate neural activation related to emotional and neutral targets in an AB task. MEG data were collected while participants performed a rapid stimulus visual presentation task in which two target stimuli were embedded in a stream of distractor words. The first target (T1) was a number and the second (T2) either an emotionally salient or neutral word. Behavioural results replicated previous findings of greater accuracy for emotionally salient than neutral T2 words. MEG source analyses showed that activation in orbitofrontal cortex, characterized by greater power in the theta and alpha bands, and dorsolateral prefrontal activation were associated with successful perceptual encoding of emotionally salient relative to neutral words. These effects were observed between 250 and 550 ms, latencies associated with discrimination of perceived from unperceived stimuli. These data suggest that important nodes of both emotional salience and frontoparietal executive systems are associated with the emotional modulation of the attentional blink.     

Alleviating social avoidance: Effects of single dose testosterone administration on approach–avoidance action

Testosterone is an important regulator of social–motivational behavior and is known for its dominance-enhancing and social-anxiolytic properties. However, to date no studies have systematically investigated the causal effect of testosterone on actual social approach–avoidance behavior in humans. The present study sets out to test the effects of testosterone administration in healthy female volunteers using an objective implicit measure of social motivational behavior: the social Approach–Avoidance Task, a reaction time task requiring participants to approach or avoid visually presented emotional (happy, angry, and neutral) faces. Participants showed significantly diminished avoidance tendencies to angry faces after testosterone administration. Testosterone did not affect approach–avoidance tendencies to social affiliation (happy) faces. Thus, a single dose testosterone administration reduces automatic avoidance of social threat and promotes relative increase of threat approach tendencies in healthy females. These findings further the understanding of the neuroendocrine regulation of social motivational behavior and may have direct treatment implications for social anxiety, characterized by persistent social avoidance.     

The reward value of infant facial cuteness tracks within-subject changes in women's salivary testosterone

“Baby schema” refers to infant characteristics, such as facial cues, that positively influence cuteness perceptions and trigger caregiving and protective behaviors in adults. Current models of hormonal regulation of parenting behaviors address how hormones may modulate protective behaviors and nurturance, but not how hormones may modulate responses to infant cuteness. To explore this issue, we investigated possible relationships between the reward value of infant facial cuteness and within-woman changes in testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone levels. Multilevel modeling of these data showed that infant cuteness was more rewarding when women's salivary testosterone levels were high. Moreover, this within-woman effect of testosterone was independent of the possible effects of estradiol and progesterone and was not simply a consequence of changes in women's cuteness perceptions. These results suggest that testosterone may modulate differential responses to infant facial cuteness, potentially revealing a new route through which testosterone shapes selective allocation of parental resources.     

Effects of oxytocin on human social approach measured using intimacy equilibriums

Research in animals and humans suggests a role of oxytocin in social approach to strangers. We tested this by introducing undergraduate students to opposite-gendered strangers, with each member of the pair having taken either oxytocin or placebo. One hundred and four undergraduate students were paired up and engaged in a face-to-face conversation structured with a series of intimate topics for discussion. We found that oxytocin increased conversational intimacy in female but not male participants, but that this was matched with compensatory decreases in eye-contact (relative to placebo). Argyle and Dean (1965) conceptualise intimacy as a function of physical distance, eye-contact, and conversational intimacy, such that equilibrium is maintained when increases in one domain are matched by compensatory decreases in another domain. Based on this notion, our results suggest that oxytocin does not facilitate social approach by increasing the intimacy equilibrium between two strangers.     

Fooled by Love: Việt Kiều Intimacy in Charlie Nguyen’s Để Mai Tính (2010)

This essay examines the portrayal of returning overseas Vietnamese (Vi?t ki?u) in Charlie Nguyen’s romantic comedy ?? Mai tính (Fool for Love, 2010). I call this conflictual relationship with Vietnamese nationals Vi?t ki?u intimacy. This intimacy is marked by disgust and desire, past and future: they are far away and too close. The Vi?t ki?u’s upward and outward mobility speaks to global capitalism’s enticing opportunities, a mobility that is explicitly linked to the Vi?t ki?u characters’ non-normative sexual-gender expressions. At the same time, that the two film characters’ career aspirations are complicated and curtailed by sex and romance suggests that the Vi?t ki?u’s mobility is compromised by their stubborn affective attachment to “Vietnam.” The rich affective, temporal and spatial dimensions of Vi?t ki?u intimacy confirms that the intimate, far from being discretely tucked away in the private realm, non-commodified and physically bounded, is inevitably linked to the public sphere, economic aims and national interests.     

The Nature of Attachment Relationships and Grief Responses in Older Adults: An Attachment Path Model of Grief

BackgroundVarious researchers have theorized that bereaved adults who report non-secure attachment are at higher risk of pathological grief. Yet past findings on avoidant attachment representations and grief have yielded limited and contradictory outcomes. Little research has been conducted with older adults to identify the psychological processes that mediate between self-reported attachment representations and the patterns of grief.ObjectiveTo examine the impacts of avoidant attachment and anxious attachment dimensions on emotion and non-acceptance, in response to the loss of a conjugal partner, and the mediating effect of yearning thoughts.DesignMen (N = 21) and women (N = 68) aged 60 years and above who had lost a partner within the last 12 to 72 months were invited to participate. Participants rated their levels of yearning thoughts about the deceased, emotions and non-acceptance on the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG-Present), and their type and level of general romantic attachment on the Experiences In Close Relationship questionnaire (ECR).ResultsStructural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that individuals who reported higher levels of avoidant attachment reported less emotional responses and less non-acceptance. SEM also showed that individuals who reported higher levels of anxious attachment reported greater emotional responses and greater non-acceptance. SEM further indicated that these relationships were mediated by yearning thoughts.ConclusionPeople adopt different grief coping patterns according to their self-reported attachment representations, with the nature of their yearning thoughts influencing the process. Grief therapy may be organized according to individual differences in attachment representations.     

Parents' testosterone and children's perception of parent-child relationship quality

We examine the link between parental testosterone and children's perceptions of their relationship with their mother and father. Using data from 352 predominantly white working and middle class families, we find no direct link between mother's and father's testosterone and parent–child closeness. However, the association between mothers' testosterone and mother–child closeness appears to be influenced by the quality of two other family relationships. When father's marital satisfaction is low, mothers with high testosterone have a poorer relationship with their children. And, when fathers report low levels of intimacy with their children, high testosterone women have a poorer relationship with their children. No comparable associations were observed among fathers.     

A Controlled Approach to the Emotional Dilution of the Stroop Effect

We re-examined a modified emotional Stroop task that included an additional colour-word alongside the emotional word, providing the response conflict of the traditional Stroop task. Negative emotionally salient (i.e. unpleasant’) words are claimed to capture attention, producing a smaller Stroop effect for negative words compared to neutral words; this phenomenon is called the emotional dilution of the Stroop effect. To address previous limitations, this study compared negative words with lexically matched neutral words in a powered sample of 45 participants. Results demonstrated an emotional Stroop effect (slower colour-naming responses for negative words) and a traditional Stroop effect but not an emotional dilution of the Stroop effect. This finding is at odds with claims that other processing resources are diminished through the failure to disengage attention from emotional information. No matter how attention towards emotional information builds up over time, our findings indicate that attentional resources are not fully captured by negative words.     

Infant pupil diameter changes in response to others' positive and negative emotions

It has been suggested that infants resonate emotionally to others' positive and negative affect displays, and that these responses become stronger towards emotions with negative valence around the age of 12-months. In this study we measured 6- and 12-month-old infants' changes in pupil diameter when presented with the image and sound of peers experiencing happiness, distress and an emotionally neutral state. For all participants the perception of another's distress triggered larger pupil diameters. Perceiving other's happiness also induced larger pupil diameters but for shorter time intervals. Importantly, we also found evidence for an asymmetry in autonomous arousal towards positive versus negative emotional displays. Larger pupil sizes for another's distress compared to another's happiness were recorded shortly after stimulus onset for the older infants, and in a later time window for the 6-month-olds. These findings suggest that arousal responses for negative as well as for positive emotions are present in the second half of the first postnatal year. Importantly, an asymmetry with stronger responses for negative emotions seems to be already present at this age.