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COPYRIGHT 2005 Western States Communications Association
Emotional support is one of the most important resources people rely on in interpersonal relationships because it provides 'comfort and security during times of stress (that leads) the person to feel he or she is cared for by others' (Cutrona & Russell, 1990, p. 322). Burleson (2003a) defines emotional support as consisting of 'specific lines of communicative behavior enacted by one party with the intent of helping another cope effectively with emotional distress' (p. 552). The positive effects of helpful support (and the negative effects of unhelpful support) have led communication researchers to identify those message properties that make for more and less effective emotional support. One of the most important verbal message factors that have been identified is verbal person centeredness, which involves the legitimization and validation of feelings experienced by the emotionally upset person (Burleson, 1994). These messages are not only evaluated as beneficial and helpful (Burleson & Samter, 1985), but also make people feel better (Jones, 2004).
In an effort to examine the general importance and benefits of emotional support in close relationships, researchers have examined the effects of gender, culture, and personality on evaluations of affective communication skills, as well as the perception and production of person-centered comforting messages (for a review see Burleson, 2003b). A large body of research now suggests that there are small, but significant, sex differences in the evaluation of affective communication skills, as well as in the use and response to comforting messages that vary in person centeredness. Women tend to rate affective skills, such as ego support and comforting, as more important than do men, though the magnitude of these sex differences is rather small (Burleson, Kunkel, Samter, & Werking, 1996; MacGeorge, Feng, & Butler, 2003). In addition, although both sexes value person-centered comforting, women tend to produce more comforting messages that are high in person centeredness than do men (MacGeorge et al., 2003) Ethnicity also seems to influence the evaluation of emotional support in close relationships. For instance, Samter and her colleagues found that African-American women in particular tended to discriminate among comforting messages varying in person centeredness far less sharply than did Euro-American women (Samter, Whaley, Mortenson, & Burleson, 1997). The current study extends this research agenda and focuses on adult attachments as one psychological factor that potentially shapes recipients' evaluations of affective communication skills and person-centered comforting messages.
Attachment theory was originally proposed to examine how parent-child interactions affect children's development of self-esteem and security, as well as their capacity for developing intimate relationships in adulthood (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980). The attachment system is activated when children are emotionally distressed and seek out their primary care giver for protection. Children who receive consistent care that is responsive to their needs gain a sense of protection and are likely to develop positive working models of themselves and others. However, children who are neglected or receive inconsistent care are likely to see themselves and/or others negatively, and tend to develop less positive models of interpersonal relationships (Bartholomew, 1990).
Examining how attachments influence evaluations of affective communication skills and person-centered messages has important implications for conceptualizations of emotional support. For example, anxiously attached people tend to be relatively unskilled in producing person-centered comforting messages (Weger & Polcar, 2002). Nevertheless, they might value such messages as comforting because anxiously attached people still look to close relationships for support and care. Ancillary evidence for this assertion comes from research conducted by Burleson and Samter (1985), who found that people with low levels of cognitive complexity viewed person-centered messages as the most sensitive and effective ways of comforting others, even though they typically are not able to generate such messages. Interestingly, Weger and Polcar (2000) found small but significant attachment style differences in cognitive complexity, such that securely attached people generated slightly more complex relational construals than did insecurely attached people. Herein also lies the pragmatic relevance of the current study: we might have to reconsider pragmatic advice to professional helpers about how to provide emotional support to insecurely attached people (see Malinckrodt, 2000).
The current study extends Weger and Polcar's (2002) research that assessed the influence of attachment style on the production of person-centered comforting messages. As expected, Weger and Polcar found that avoidants produced less person-centered comforting messages than did nonavoidants. A curvilinear relationship emerged for person-centered message use by anxiously attached people, with those extremely low and high in attachment anxiety producing the least amount of highly person-centered messages, and those having a moderate degree of anxiety (i.e., secures) producing the largest amount of highly person-centered messages. Specifically, the present study explores how attachment style influences people's evaluations of affective communication skills and person-centered comforting messages. The current study uses two attachment measures: a continuous attachment measure that examines attachment patterns in terms of anxiety and avoidance (Collins & Feeney, 2000), and a prototypical four-factor attachment measure that examines attachment patterns for dismissives, fearful avoidants, preoccupieds and secures (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991).
Attachment Theory
Attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety are the two primary dimensions underlying the formation of cognitive models of self and other. Attachment anxiety is shaped by models of self that reflect whether people see themselves as worthy or unworthy of affection and attention. Attachment avoidance is shaped by other models that reflect the degree to which people approach (vs. avoid) intimacy and interpersonal relationships (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998). Crossing the two dimensions generates four distinct prototypical attachment styles (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Secures are neither avoidant nor anxious because they possess positive views of themselves and others. Secures are comfortable expressing their difficult emotions in a constructive manner by acknowledging their distress and turning to others for support and help. Dismissives are primarily avoidant because they possess negative views of others and positive views of themselves. They tend to suppress negative emotions and use avoidant strategies as primary coping mechanisms. Preoccupieds have positive models of others but negative models of themselves and are primarily anxious. They tend to demonstrate their negative feeling states in a turgid and anxious manner by constantly seeking their partner's approval. Fearful avoidants have negative models of themselves and others and can be best classified as anxious-avoidant. Although fearful avoidants would like to have close relationships with others, they avoid relational intimacy because they worry about being hurt or rejected.
Affective Communication Skills and Person-centered Comforting Messages in the Emotional Support Process
People look to close relationships for psychological support, mutual intimacy, and emotional involvement. Communication skills that foster these affective functions are therefore particularly valued in close relationships (Samter & Burleson, 1990). Burleson and Samter (1990; also see Samter & Burleson, 1990) developed the Communication Functions Questionnaire (CFQ) to elicit evaluations about...
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