Avoidant attachment and automatic vs. controlled components of psychological defense

The mental defenses of avoidantly attached adults are thought to have both automatic and controlled components. The goals of the present study are to examine the effectiveness and interplay of the automatic and controlled components of avoidant defenses (experiment 1), and to examine the role of associative networks in avoidant defenses (experiment 2). In both experiments, the presence and awareness of an attachment threat were manipulated, and participants completed a variety of measures designed to measure attachment system activation. Avoidant individuals who were aware of an actual threat were best able to deactivate the attachment system. Moreover, avoidant individuals who formed a sad facial expression had a difficult time suppressing thoughts of separation and loss (experiment 2). These results suggest that avoidant defenses are primarily controlled, and that avoidant individuals have a richly connected associative network of negative thoughts and feelings.