Anxious-preoccupied attachment
interpersonal attachment style
Anxious-preoccupied attachment has been linked to various psychological and interpersonal difficulties. For example, research has suggested that anxious-preoccupied attachment may mediate the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and borderline personality disorder.
Characteristics
Individuals with an anxious-preoccupied attachment style are characterized by a strong desire for closeness and intimacy in their relationships, but they often experience high levels of anxiety and uncertainty about the availability and responsiveness of their attachment figures. This attachment style is associated with a negative model of the self and a positive model of others, leading to a preoccupation with relationships and a fear of abandonment.
Anxious-preoccupied individuals tend to have a heightened sensitivity to emotional cues and a tendency to perceive more pain intensity and unpleasantness in others. This may be due to the projection of their own "actual-self" traits onto their perception of others. They tend to be more concerned about reaching their therapeutic goals and report less emotional relief than others after crying in therapy, especially when the relationship with their therapist is not strong.
Individuals with this attachment style tend to have a negative self-view and a vacillating or split view of others, which can contribute to interpersonal dysfunction.
Anxious-preoccupied individuals have more opportunities to reflect on their emotions, leading to a heightened ability to understand and express their feelings. They may rely on self-silencing strategies and restrict the expression of negative emotions, particularly in the context of close relationships.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anxious-preoccupied attachment” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.