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Attachment and Alexithymia Are Related, but Mind-Mindedness Does Not Mediate This Relationship

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Attachment and Alexithymia Are Related, but Mind-Mindedness Does Not Mediate This Relationship View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Jagiellonian Univeristy Repository Polish Psychological Bulletin Original Papers 2015, vol 46(2), 217-222 DOI - 10.1515/ppb-2015-0029 Marta Szpak * Marta Białecka-Pikul ** Attachment and alexithymia are related, but mind-mindedness does not mediate this relationship Abstract: The main aim of the study was to check: (a) attachment-related differences in alexithymia and (b) the mediating role of mind-mindedness in attachment-alexithymia relationship. Method: Attachment (PAM; Berry et al., 2007), alexithymia (TAS-20; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994) and mind-mindedness (“describe your friend” method; Meins et al, 2008) were measured in the sample of 128 Polish undergraduates. Results: Positive associations were seen between attachment anxiety and overall alexithymia scores and difficulty identifying emotions. Attachment avoidance was positively associated with overall alexithymia score, difficulty describing feelings and externally oriented thinking. Mind-mindedness was not related to neither attachment or alexithymia. Conclusion: There are attachment-related differences in alexithymia, but mind-mindedness seems not to mediate attachment-alexithymia relationship. Key words: alexithymia, attachment, mind-mindedness, mentalizing Introduction development of neural structures responsible for emotion regulation (Schore, 2000). Since alexithymia reflects The term “alexithymia” refers to a specific difficulties in affective self-regulation, it is reasonable to disturbance in emotional processing that is manifested claim that alexithymic features are strictly connected with by difficulties in identifying and describing feelings, an individual’s attachment style. Indeed, links between difficulties in distinguishing feelings from bodily sensations insecure attachment and alexithymia have been confirmed of emotional arousal, a constricted fantasy life, and an in many studies with adults (e.g. De Rick & Vanheule, 2006; externally oriented cognitive style (Taylor & Bagby, Hexel, 2003; Montebarocci, Codispoti, Baldaro, & Rossi; 2004). Researchers have revealed that alexithymia is 2004; Picardi, Toni, & Caroppo, 2005), and alexithymia was broadly associated with various physical and mental health related to perception of parenting both in clinical (De Rick problems (Leweke, Leichsenring, Kruse, & Hermes, 2012). & Vanheule, 2006) and nonclinical samples (Berry, Band, Nevertheless, despite extensive research, the etiology of Corcoran, Barrowclough, & Wearden, 2007). alexithymia remains unclear (Taylor & Bagby, 2004). The Nevertheless, most research report associations most promising perspective guiding research on the etiology between insecure attachment and only general alexithymia of alexithymia is attachment theory, which provides an score. That is, few studies examine different factors of account of how patterns of parent-infant interaction become alexithymia such as: difficulty in identifying emotions, self-regulating features of the child‘s personality (Kobak, difficulty in describing emotions and externally oriented Holland, Rayanne, & Fleming, 1993). thinking (Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994). Recently it has been claimed that associations between attachment and Attachment and alexithymia alexithymia based on general measures may be simplified and thus misleading (Meins, Harris-Waller, & Lloyd, 2008). The attachment relationship with main caregiver Since attachment characteristic are related to different in childhood is considered as playing a fundamental regulatory strategies (Kobak et al., 1993) and different role in the development of emotion regulation (Kobak, regulatory strategies may lead to different alexithymic Holland, Rayanne, & Fleming, 1993). For example, features, it was hypothesized that: (a) attachment anxiety, neurobiological data support the role of attachment in associated with amplifying emotional experiences, can lead * Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, ul. Ingardena 6, 30-060 Cracow; [email protected] ** Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/16/15 1:15 PM 218 Marta Szpak, Marta Białecka-Pikul to difficulty in identifying emotions, while (b) attachment people with high attachment anxiety may be excessively avoidance, associated with minimizing emotions, can lead preoccupied by other people’s mental states (e.g. does he/ to an excessive focus on behavior (externally oriented she really like me? Is she/he think I am a nice person?). thinking) (Meins, Harris-Waller, & Lloyd, 2008). Although For example, the fear of abandonment is the characteristic the results of Meins et al. (2008) have confirmed attachment- feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although related differences in alexithymia, Picardi, Toni and people suffering from BPD have severe problems with Caroppo (2005) reported that both attachment anxiety and understanding social situations (see Preißler, Dziobek, avoidance were related to all alexithymia features. Given Ritter, Heekeren, & Roepke, 2010), Fertuck and co-workers that the nature of attachment-alexithymia relationship (2009) found that those people were better than healthy, remains unclear, the aim of presented study was to examine control group in standard mentalizing task that requires links between attachment and different alexithymia factors. emotion recognition. Moreover we also intend to check if mind-mindedness In sum, in our replication study we hypothesized mediates the relation between attachment and alexithymia. that (a) attachment avoidance would be associated positively with externally oriented thinking, difficulty in describing Mind-mindedness as an explanatory mechanism emotions and the overall alexithymia; (b) attachment anxiety would be associated positively with difficulty in identifying Mind-mindedness (MM) is a trait-like measure of emotions, difficulty in describing emotions and the overall individuals’ motivation or tendency to deploy mentalizing alexithymia; but (c) mind-mindedness would mediate only ability, that is ability to refer to unobservable mental states the relation between attachment avoidance and alexithymia. such as emotions and beliefs (Meins, Fernyhough, Johnson & Lidstone, 2006; Meins, Harris-Waller & Lloyd, 2008). It Method was empirically proven that having mentalizing ability does Participants not mean that it is spontaneously used. For example, a child The participants were 128 Polish undergraduate that is able to pass mentalizing task does not necessarily students (36 men), aged 19-30 (M = 22.22, SD = 2.06). make references to mental states when telling a story (Meins, Women (M = 22.61, Mdn = 23, SD = 2.33) and men Fernyhough, Johnson, & Lidstone, 2006). Interestingly, (M = 22.07, Mdn = 22, SD = 1.94) were in similar age there is evidence that highly alexithymic people perform (U = 1465, z = -1.02, p = .305). No incentive was offered well in mentalising tasks (Wastell & Taylor, 2002). They also for participation. have access to emotional vocabulary, but are not prone to spontaneously employ it (Luminet, Rime, Bagby, & Taylor, Measures 2004). Consequenlty, alexithymia is currently best framed Attachment. General attachment was assessed in terms of deficit in performance rather than competence. using the Psychosis Attachment Measure (PAM; Berry et Therefore, MM, as focused on motivation instead of the al., 2007). The questionnaire is based on the Bartholomew ability itself, might be an explanatory mechanism of relation and Horowitz’s (1991) model of attachment, and it yields between attachment and alexithymia (Meins et al., 2008). scores on two dimensions: attachment avoidance and Meins, Harris-Waller and Lloyd’s study (2008) attachment anxiety. Attachment anxiety is the experience of showed that MM was a mediating factor in the relation dependence, worry, low self-worth, desire to be very close to between attachment avoidance and externally oriented the attachment figure, and fears of being abandoned, while thinking, but did not mediate any other attachment- attachment avoidance comprises negative expectations of alexithymia links. We agree with Meins and co-workers relationships and fears of emotional closeness and intimacy (2008) that externally oriented thinking is one of the three (Griffin & Bartholomew, 1994). factors of alexithymia that most clearly involves probably The Psychosis Attachment Measure (PAM) a conscious decision (motivational aspect) to not explore includes16 items referring to thoughts, feelings, and mental states. Therefore it may be the best expression of behaviors in close interpersonal relationships. Respondents individuals’ tendency to use their emotional understanding are asked to rate the extent to which each item applied, (that is, mind-mindedness). using a four-point Likert scale ranging from 0 = “not at Nevertheless, we also postulate that the lack of all” to 3= “very much”. Attachment anxiety and avoidance mediating role of MM in attachment anxiety-alexithymia is are calculated separately as the sum of anxiety/avoidance consistent with characteristics linked to attachment anxiety. items divided by eight (each scale consists of eight items). Firstly, attachment anxiety is associated with amplifying Thus the results for each scale vary from 0 to 3. Higher emotional experiences (Kobak et al., 1993), so people scores indicate greater attachment anxiety and avoidance. who have high attachment anxiety should actually be more The internal consistency of each dimension
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