The Design and Procedures
The article under analysis deals with the problems of adult attachment, affect regulation, and interpersonal problems. The given research investigates the role of affect regulation for attachment formation, negative mood, and interpersonal issues. It has been found that the dependence between anxiety, negative mood, and interpersonal problems is affected by emotional reactivity, while the dependence between avoidance, negative mood, and interpersonal problems is affected by the emotional cutoff.
The authors of the article in their investigation use the approach of within-subject designs as the most appropriate method that allows minimizing a possibility of error. All the participants of the experiment have been exposed to equal conditions. The method is based on the research of the influence of the independent variables (in this particular case they are anxiety, negative mood, and interpersonal problems) on the dependent ones such as emotional reactivity and emotional cutoff.
The participants of the research were 229 persons, including 70 males and 148 females undergraduate students. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 43, with an average age of 19. The majority of the participants were Caucasian. The survey was conducted by means of the questionnaire.
The Results for Each Hypothesis
The authors of the article have made a hypothesis that emotional reactivity serves as a mediator between anxiety and negative mood with interpersonal problems, while emotional cutoff is a mediator between avoidance and negative mood with interpersonal problems. This hypothesis is confirmed by the results of the survey. The emotional reactivity and the emotional cutoff are measured using the six-point scale aiming for evaluation of the participants self-differentiation. At this stage, the aim of the research is to define participants differentiation in accordance with two parameters and the degree of equilibrium between them.
The first factor is an emotional and intellectual activity, while the second one is intimacy in relations. The participants have been asked to evaluate their emotions in relation to their relatives according to the six-point scale. In the next stage, the participants had to evaluate the level of their emotional reactivity and emotional cutoff according to eleven and twelve points scale correspondently.
Using the same method, the researchers investigate the participants level of negative mood and interpersonal problems. In the given research the attachment orientations, the negative mood, and the interpersonal problems are represented as independent variables, while the emotional reactivity and the emotional cutoff serve as dependent variables. Based on the data obtained during the survey and using different techniques of data processing, the researchers came to the following conclusions.
The increased level of anxiety is intimately related to the emotional cutoff. At the same time, the value of the emotional cutoff is much lower than the value of the emotional reactivity. On the contrary, the level of attachment avoidance is tightly connected with the emotional cutoff, while attachment anxiety is associated with emotional reactivity.
A Critique of Methodology Including Threats to Validity of the Study
In recent times, there may be observed a rise of interest in the study of emotional attachment. It is connected with the increased attention of social sciences to the problems of human relations. Many sociologists, psychologists, culture experts, and health professionals emphasize the difficulties of the initiation of psychological intimacy. In contemporary psychology, the given problem is connected with the tendency to exaggerate the meaning of personal independence and individual achievements and to minimize the role of sympathy and attachment. It must be admitted that empirical researches dealing with the problem of emotional attachment are few in number. In such a way, the urgency of the problem revealed in the given article is obvious.
The authors have made a serious investigation into which data and results may be useful for the further development of the discipline. During their research, they have been using the results from the previous studies and the techniques of data processing. The results of the research seem to be consistent. The only issue, which may be recognized as a disadvantage of this research, is the small number of participants, the overwhelming majority of whom was represented by female students. Taking into consideration the differences in psychological peculiarities between males and females, this fact may cast some suspicion on its results.
Possible Ways of an Improvement of the Study
The survey represented in this scholarly article may be extended by increasing the number of participants. Moreover, in order to make its results more decisive, it is possible to conduct the survey among different groups of participants. One of the possible ways of the improvement of this investigation is the usage of different research designs. Apart from the methods applied by the authors, it is also possible to use different between-groups designs, comparing variables from different social groups. The same survey may be applied in relation to representatives of different cultures.
The results of the given study give an indication of the effect of attachment dimensions on negative mood or interpersonal problems. The data of the research conducted by the authors may be applied in further investigations and it has an important meaning for this discipline.