Julie Longua Peterson presents at the annual conference of the Eastern Psychological Association

Julie Longua Peterson, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology, gave a research talk at the annual conference for the Eastern Psychological Association in New York City.  Her presentation focused on the potentially negative consequences of security primes for people who are anxiously attached.

Across two experiments, people high in attachment-related anxiety experience decreased implicit feelings of self-worth when thoughts of relationship security are activated.  The results also suggest that high anxiety participants only experience implicit self-doubt when they are the receivers of security, rather than the providers of it.

As researchers begin to employ security-priming as a tool for enhancing feelings of safety in relationships, they should be aware of the potentially negative consequences for those who are anxiously attached. Ironically, it appears that the security that people who are high in attachment-related anxiety desire most from their close relationship partners has the potential to activate implicit vulnerabilities.

This work is part of Longua Peterson’s main research line, which focuses on the how explicit (conscious controlled) and implicit (unconscious, automatic) processes inform our understanding of relationship dynamics.