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The Relationship Between Shame and Attachment Styles. Doctor Of THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SHAME AND ATTACHMENT STYLES Sarah A. H. Atkins, M.S. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2016 APPROVED: Patricia L. Kaminski, Major Professor Ed Watkins, Committee Co-Chair Shelley Riggs, Committee Member Heidemarie Blumenthal, Committee Member Vicki Campbell, Chair of the Department of Psychology David Holdeman, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Victor Prybutok, Vice Provost of the Toulouse Graduate School Atkins, Sarah A. H. The relationship between shame and attachment styles. Doctor of Philosophy (Counseling Psychology), August 2016, 158 pp., 18 tables, 5 illustrations, references, 112 titles. Despite research documenting the association between shame and aspects of poor psychological functioning, shame’s adverse effects have remained largely invisible in modern societies. Shame has been described as the “attachment emotion” (Lewis, 1980), yet, there is little research that examines the relationship between attachment style and shame, and conclusions from this research are tempered by methodological limitations. The current study aimed to address methodological limitations with a quasi-experimental design and employed measures of state and trait shame, shame coping styles, an Emotional Stroop task for assessing implicit shame, and a shame mood induction procedure (MIP). This methodology provided a basis to examine differences by attachment style for 271 university students in state, trait, and implicit shame, as well as the use of maladaptive shame coping styles at baseline and following a shame MIP. Additionally, a qualitative analysis of the shame MIP written responses was conducted to provide a more nuanced understanding of the task used to elicit feelings of shame and individual differences in events identified as shame-triggering. Results revealed that students evidencing an insecure attachment style (i.e., preoccupied, fearful or dismissive) reported significantly more state and trait shame compared to students evidencing a secure attachment style after the shame MIP. Individuals with an insecure attachment style also demonstrated significant increases in state shame from baseline to post-MIP. Additionally, students with a preoccupied or fearful attachment style were also significantly more likely to endorse utilizing maladaptive shame coping strategies compared to students with a secure attachment style. Clinical implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed. Copyright 2015 by Sarah A. H. Atkins ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation co-chairs Dr. Patricia Kaminski and Dr. Ed Watkins for their guidance, support, and dedication to this project. Sincere thanks go to my dissertation committee members Dr. Shelley Riggs and Dr. Heidemarie Blumenthal for their valuable feedback and suggestions that were essential to refining my project. I also wish to acknowledge and thank the many courageous people I worked with in therapy throughout my graduate training. My clients have been my teachers and their stories inspired my project. Thank you to my family and friends, your encouragement and love kept me motivated all of these years. In particular, I would like to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to Justine Chatterton, Tara McKelvy, and Estee Simpkins Marchesani for sharing in the joyful moments and commiserating in the challenging ones over the last six years. Also, an enormous thank you Mom, Dad, and Kristen, we may have lived a thousand miles apart, but the distance did not diminish the love and support I felt from you. Finally, I thank my husband, Matt, for his patience, reassurance, and love as he shared this journey with me. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 Shame .......................................................................................................................2 Attachment Theory ................................................................................................11 Attachment and Emotion Regulation .....................................................................17 Shame and Attachment ..........................................................................................25 Methodological Issues in the Measurement of Shame ..........................................27 Summary of Limitations of the Current Literature ................................................30 Purpose and Hypotheses ........................................................................................31 2. METHOD ................................................................................................................... 34 Participants .............................................................................................................34 Measures ................................................................................................................35 Procedure ...............................................................................................................44 Qualitative Coding for the MIP Written Responses ..............................................46 3. RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 47 Data Preparation .....................................................................................................47 Assumption Testing ...............................................................................................47 Initial Analyses ......................................................................................................49 Hypothesis Testing – Attachment Styles. ..............................................................51 Exploratory Analyses – Written Responses ...........................................................59 4. DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................. 61 Composition of the Shame MIP Written Responses ..............................................61 Effectiveness of the Shame MIP ............................................................................64 Implicit Shame and Attachment Styles ..................................................................66 Secure Attachment Style and Self-Reported Shame ..............................................69 Internal Working Models, State Shame, and Trait Shame .....................................71 Discrepancies in State Shame Results ...................................................................75 Bidirectional Relationship between State and Trait Shame ...................................76 iv Shame Coping Styles at Baseline ..........................................................................77 Clinical Implications ..............................................................................................82 Limitations .............................................................................................................84 Future Research Directions ....................................................................................87 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................. 114 REFERENCE LIST .................................................................................................................... 145 v LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. Demographic Characteristics for Categorical Variables by Attachment Style ................89 Table 2. Demographic Characteristics for Continuous Variables by Attachment Style ................91 Table 3. Correlation Matrix for Dependent Variables ...................................................................92 Table 4. Descriptives for the Rating Scale by Attachment Style ...................................................93 Table 5. Descriptives for ES RTs Pre- and Post-MIP among Attachment Classification .............94 Table 6. Descriptives for the SSGS Pre- and Post-MIP among Attachment Styles ......................95 Table 7. Descriptives for the ESS Pre- and Post-MIP among Adult Attachment Styles ...............96 Table 8. Descriptives for Trait Shame Pre- and Post-MIP among Attachment Styles ..................97 Table 9. MANOVA Comparing Adult Attachment Style on Baseline Implicit, State, and Trait Shame .............................................................................................................................................98 Table 10. Repeated Measures ANOVA for Trait Shame by Adult Attachment Style ..................99 Table 11. Descriptives for ES Shame RTs Pre- and Post-MIP with Resolved Responses Removed ......................................................................................................................................100 Table 12. Descriptives for Shame Coping Styles as a Function of Adult Attachment Style .......101 Table 13. Descriptives for Written Response Codes by Attachment Style .................................102 Table 14.
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