Social adequacy and attachment perspectives on the generation of hurt feelings : an investigation using female community samples

Abstract

Hurt is an emotion that can arise from a range of negative interpersonal acts. Two major perspectives on the defining features of hurtful experiences have been advanced to date. The social adequacy perspective argues that hurt is generated in response to appraisals of relational denigration, or the perception that a perpetrator values a relationship less than the victim of a hurtful event assumed. The attachment theory perspective argues that hurtful events threaten the felt security underlying attachment bonds. In three studies, using community samples of adult women (N = 990), this thesis examines the contributions of these perspectives to our understanding of hurt feelings. Studies 1 and 2 use self-report correlational methodologies (n = 475 and n = 380) while Study 3 uses an experimental methodology (n = 135). Four central hypotheses are evaluated: (1) predictors of hurt feelings have interactive effects on hurt intensity within the social adequacy and attachment perspectives; (2) attachment predictors explain hurt intensity more powerfully than social adequacy predictors; (3) felt security and degree of attachment to the perpetrator are important predictors of hurt intensity; and (4) social adequacy and attachment perspectives on hurt predict ongoing psychological adjustment for victims of hurtful experiences. The results in relation to the first hypothesis demonstrate that social adequacy predictors (type of hurtful event, importance of the perpetrator, and victim hurt-proneness) have a significant three-way interaction, indicating that greater event severity and perpetrator importance reduce the influence of hurt-proneness on hurt intensity. However, only the main effects for attachment anxiety and avoidance remain significant when assessing the two-way interactions between attachment predictors (degree of attachment to the perpetrator, and attachment style). Higher attachment anxiety and lower attachment avoidance predict greater hurt. The second hypothesis is assessed through a model containing both the social adequacy and attachment predictors. The interaction between the social adequacy variables remains significant in this model and the interaction between degree of attachment and attachment anxiety becomes significant. However, the social adequacy predictors have larger effect sizes than the attachment predictors. The third hypothesis is examined by experimentally manipulating felt security using security priming and assessing interactions between priming, degree of attachment to perpetrator, and attachment style. No main or interactive effects of priming are found. However, previous security priming results are not replicated, indicating that priming may not have worked as intended. The final hypothesis is assessed in a model connecting social adequacy and attachment predictors with hurt, self-esteem, depression and anxiety. The results demonstrate that social adequacy variables primarily predict hurt while attachment variables primarily predict self-esteem, depression and anxiety. Overall, this thesis finds that, when directly compared using a self-report methodology, social adequacy predictors contribute more substantially to the intensity of hurt feelings than attachment predictors. Attachment variables, on the other hand, more strongly predict the impact of hurtful events on psychological health than social adequacy variables. The inconclusive results of the priming study, however, leave the importance of the role of felt security unresolved. Show more