Preevent and postevent emotion regulation for individuals high in avoidance: Behavioral and physiological markers

Attachment research has found that individuals high in avoidance evidence variability in their patterns of physiological reactivity and emotion regulation. The current study attempted to show that there two subtypes of avoidance-one that tends to use preevent strategies of distancing and distraction, and another that tends to use post-event strategies such as denial and suppression. Both behavioral and physiological measures of emotion regulation were used to validate the existence of these subtypes. Data were collected from on both day-to-day, naturally occurring emotion regulation behaviors (assessed with daily diaries) as well as individuals' laboratory-based physiological reactivity. Analysis and graphing of the data did not identify a group of avoidant individuals who participated in the defined preevent or postevent regulatory strategies. Beyond the proposed hypotheses, there were several findings contributing to a better understanding of anxious attachment, emotion regulation, psychophysiological reactivity and correspondence between physiological reactivity and subjective experience. In sum, it appears that the conceptualization of preevent and postevent regulation, presented in the current study, was not supported nor was it associated with attachment security.