Emotion in Relationships 1 Running Head: EMOTION IN RELATIONSHIPS Developmental Antecedents of Emotion in Romantic Relationships Jeffry A. Simpson W. Andrew Collins SiSi Tran Katherine C. Haydon University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus Correspondence: Correspondence should be addressed to Jeffry A. Simpson, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 E. River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455- 0344 (e-mail: [email protected]). Key Words: Attachment, emotions, romantic relationships, peer relationships Word Count: 7540 12-18-06
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Developmental Antecedents of Emotion in Romantic Relationships
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Emotion in Relationships 1
Running Head: EMOTION IN RELATIONSHIPS
Developmental Antecedents of Emotion in Romantic Relationships
Jeffry A. Simpson
W. Andrew Collins
SiSi Tran
Katherine C. Haydon
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus
Correspondence: Correspondence should be addressed to Jeffry A. Simpson, Department
of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 E. River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455-
emotional tone – was mediated through peer competence and security at age 16 (see
Figure 1, subscript d). As expected, this model fit the data well.
Emotion in Relationships 19
Several strands of evidence indicate that these double-mediation effects are
robust. First, the effects are consistent despite the fact that the two observer ratings of
expressed emotion (Relationship Process and Negative Affect) share no method variance
with the ETI self-reports. Second, all of the effects remain reliable even when variance
associated with the partner’s self-reports of emotions in the relationship are partialed
from each target participant’s self-reports. Third, the double-mediation pattern also
emerges when the three primary dependent measures are aggregated into a single
composite index. Fourth, when alternative models were examined, the double-mediation
model continued to provide a stronger or a more parsimonious fit to the data than
alternative models for each of the three dependent measures. Viewed together, these
results offer fairly compelling evidence for the double-mediation model.
Larger Theoretical Issues
Bowlby (1979) believed that attachment relationships contribute to personality
and social development “from the cradle to the grave.” The findings of this unique
longitudinal study support this core premise of attachment theory. Assessing relationship
experiences at four critical stages of development, we found that the experience and
expression of emotions in adult romantic relationships are meaningfully tied to
attachment-relevant experiences earlier in social development. Specifically, the early
attachment security of target participants at 12 months of age predicted their competence
with peers (rated by teachers) during early elementary school. Elementary school peer
competence, in turn, predicted the degree of security evident in target participants’
representations of close friendships at age 16. This measure then predicted both daily
reports of emotions experienced in romantic relationships (reported by target participants
Emotion in Relationships 20
and their partners) as well as the expression of emotions (rated by observers) during
videotaped interaction tasks. Corroborating Bowlby’s conjectures, therefore, both the
experience and expression of emotion in romantic relationships are tied in significant and
meaningful ways to experiences rooted in earlier relationships and stages of social
development. However, the findings also reveal that earlier developmental stages tend to
have the strongest and most direct impact on the stages immediately following them.
In the concluding section of the chapter, we elaborate how these results extend
attachment theory, add to the developmental attachment literature, and expand our
understanding of emotions in adult romantic relationships. We also speculate on how the
current results could be understood within the Emotion-in-Relationships Model (ERM;
Berscheid & Ammazzalorso, 2001).
Theoretical and Empirical Extensions
Bowlby (1980) believed that life’s deepest and most intense emotions often arise
within attachment relationships. One of the principal functions of the attachment system,
in fact, is to regulate negative affect, especially when individuals are ill, fatigued, afraid,
overly challenged, or in pain. Bowlby also believed that experiences in and
representations of attachment-based relationships from earlier periods of social
development should leave residual traces on attachment relationships later in life.
Pointing to Waddington’s (1957) epigenetic landscape model, Bowlby (1973) likened
social development to a railway system in which individuals set out on one
developmental track early in life and then encounter multiple branch points at crucial
stages of social development that can lead to different outcomes in adulthood. Bowlby
believed that the quality of the caregiving environment figures prominently in
Emotion in Relationships 21
determining not only which developmental “track” individuals take at critical junctures,
but also in sustaining movement down a particular track (see Fraley & Brumbaugh,
2004). The findings of this longitudinal study extend our understanding of critical
attachment processes not only by confirming that the quality of attachment relationships
earlier in life are systematically related to the emotional tenor of later adult romantic
relationships, but also by pinpointing one developmental pathway through which past
relationships might impinge on current ones.
From a developmental perspective, these findings reconfirm that adult
relationship experiences are embedded in processes that begin with early caregiving
conditions, and that the qualities of early caregiving are then carried forward through
important relationships in successive developmental periods (see also Collins & Sroufe,
1999; Sroufe, 1989). This carry-forward process is likely to be complex, involving the
interplay of internal working models and social relationships associated with different
developmental periods between infancy and adolescence (see Carlson et al., 2004). The
current findings also indicate that this process continues into early adulthood and may
partially explain the pattern of emotions that individuals experience and express in their
adult romantic relationships.
The Findings in the Context of the ERM
The current study was not designed to test the Emotion-in-Relationships Model
(ERM; Berscheid & Ammazzalorso, 2001). Nevertheless, one can envision how
“vestiges” of an individual’s relationship past might shape the experience and expression
of emotions in his or her later romantic relationships. According to the ERM, emotions
are experienced in relationships when expectations associated with important plans or
Emotion in Relationships 22
goals are suddenly violated or disconfirmed. When plans or goals are completed or
fulfilled more quickly or easily than anticipated, individuals ought to experience positive
emotions. Conversely, when important goals and plans are unexpectedly thwarted or
blocked, negative emotions should ensue. We suspect that working models and
experiences in relationships earlier in life may affect the types of interpersonal goals,
plans, and expectancies that individuals have for later relationships and, thus, can be
facilitated or hindered.
People who have a history of largely secure relationships and working models
may experience and express more positive and fewer negative emotions in their
relationships for several reasons. As a starting point, they may be more willing to
consider and accommodate their partner’s preferences and desires, especially when they
make important relationship-relevant decisions. Individuals who have more secure
attachment representations do usually work toward “goal-corrected partnerships” in
which each partner’s most important needs and desires are considered before deciding
which course of action would be best for the relationship rather than oneself (Simpson,
2007). Individuals who have more secure attachment histories also tend to display more
constructive, problem-focused interaction strategies (Pistole, 1989; Simpson et al., 1996),
make more benign attributions when partners engage in questionable behaviors (Collins,
1996), and more readily forgive their partner’s transgressions (cf. Johnson, 2004). By
adopting and constructively working toward plans and goals that may be both more
equitable and more relationship-centered (e.g., MaxJoint outcomes; Simpson, 2007),
people who have secure attachment histories should be in a better position to facilitate
and attain outcomes beneficial to both relationship partners. This could explain why they
Emotion in Relationships 23
experience and express more positive emotions in their relationships; more secure
persons may be more likely to establish and achieve shared plans and goals with their
partners.
Individuals who have insecure relationship histories and working models, by
comparison, are more likely to experience and express less positive and more negative
emotions in their relationships. These individuals should be less inclined to consider and
accommodate their partner’s preferences and desires, perhaps due to concerns about
sufficient autonomy, control, and independence (by highly avoidant persons) or fears of
being abandoned, taken advantage of, or failing to meet needs for felt security (by highly
anxious persons). People who have insecure attachment representations may also be less
motivated to forge goal-corrected partnerships (Simpson, 2007), which may be
exacerbated by their tendency enact dysfunctional interaction strategies (Pistole, 1989;
Simpson et al., 1996), make negative dispositional inferences about their partner’s
questionable actions (Collins, 1996), and their predisposition toward being less forgiving
(cf. Johnson, 2004). All of these tendencies should make insecure individuals less
capable of facilitating and achieving mutually beneficial relationship outcomes, which
could explain why they experience and express more negative emotions in their
relationships; more insecure persons are less likely to facilitate and achieve shared plans
and goals with their partners.
Conclusions
Bowlby (1980) argued that life’s strongest emotions typically arise during the
development, maintenance, termination, and reformation of attachment relationships. He
also surmised that vestiges of one’s interpersonal past should be systematically related to
Emotion in Relationships 24
the emotional tenor of successive attachment relationships across the lifespan. We have
highlighted one developmental pathway through which significant relationship
experiences during the opening years of life are associated with the daily experience and
behavioral expression of positive versus negative emotions in adult romantic
relationships. The relationship past is meaningfully linked to the present for many
individuals, but through what has transpired in different types of relationships during
intervening stages of social development.
Emotion in Relationships 25
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Author Notes
Jeffry A. Simpson and SiSi Tran, Department of Psychology, University of
Minnesota; W. Andrew Collins and Katherine C. Haydon, Institute of Child
Development, University of Minnesota.
The writing of this article was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant
R01-MH40864 to Byron Egeland, L. Alan Sroufe, and W. Andrew Collins, by National
Institute of Mental Health Grant R01-MH49599 to Jeffry A. Simpson, and by NIMH
Training Grant MH19893 to Katherine C. Haydon. The pioneering work of Byron
Egeland, L. Alan Sroufe, and Elizabeth A. Carlson in the early phases of this longitudinal
study is gratefully acknowledged.
Emotion in Relationships 33
Footnotes
1. The AAI is a semi-structured hour-long interview that asks questions about the
respondent’s upbringing with his/her mother and father between the ages of 5-12. Most
individuals are classified into one of three primary AAI categories. “Secure” individuals
openly discuss both the positive and the negative aspects of their upbringing, they recount
their earlier experiences coherently and in a reasonably detailed, non-defensive manner,
and they seem to have forgiven their parents if major transgressions occurred in the past.
“Preoccupied” individuals often discuss their childhoods at great length, usually
displaying either excessive unresolved frustration or anger about their upbringing or
discussing tangential issues that do not address the specific interview questions.
“Dismissive” individuals either idealize their childhoods without providing specific
details about good events from their childhoods that support their glowing memories,
experience major memory blocks of childhood, or curtly dismiss the importance of
attachment relationships altogether.
2. Only a small percentage of children are classified as “Disorganized” in the
Strange Situation. Disorganization usually results from experiencing highly traumatic,
fearful, or frightening events, often in connection with the primary caregiver. None of the
78 target participants in our longitudinal sample was classified as disorganized as
children.
Emotion in Relationships 34
.36**abcd
.38**abcd
.41***a -.35**b .27*c
. .43***d
Figure 1: Structural Models 1 – 4
† p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. Note: Four tests of the structural model were conducted, each with one of the four dependent variables: a – adult romantic relationship process, b – adult romantic negative affect, c – adult romantic emotional tone, and d – the composite score for dependent variables a, b, and c.
Infant Attachment
Peer Competence
Security at Age 16
.05a -.09b .20†
c .19†
d
Dependent Variable: a. Romantic Process b. Negative Affect c. Emotional Tone d. Composite Index