Impact Of Secure Attachment Priming On Positive Empathy Of Attachment Individuals-ERP Research

Research background and purpose:Attachment is a intense emotional tie and inclination that is formed in the long-term interaction between individuals and their caregivers.The theory of attachment believes that individuals have subjective initiative,have their own stable "internal work model",and different attachment types have different "internal work models".Among them,avoidant attachment individuals tend to use the strategy of inhibition activation,while anxious attachment individuals tend to over-activate the attachment system.In order to cope with and improve these two insecure attachment orientations,researchers put forward the safe attachment priming and its paradigm based on the activation theory of attachment.The safe attachment priming activates the subject’s safe attachment representation through situational activation,enhances the individual’s sense of attachment security,and will trigger a series of positive effects,including increasing positive emotions such as warmth,enhancing individual empathy,and promoting the generation of altruistic behavior.But these results are almost all based on the research of pain empathy,while the research based on positive empathy is less.Previous studies have found that positive empathy and pain empathy are separated and have their own unique cognitive neural mechanism.This study uses event-related potential technology(ERP),combined with safe attachment priming paradigm and monetary gambling task,to explore the impact of safe attachment priming on the positive empathy ability of different attachment individuals,and preliminarily explore the cognitive neural mechanism behind the impact of safe attachment priming on positive empathy.Materials and Methods:In this study,a total of 30 female subjects were recruited through the ECR scale.Among them,there are 15 avoidant attachment and 15 safe attachment,aged 18-22.The experiment adopted 2(attachment style: safe and avoidant)× 2(start type: neutral condition,safe attachment priming).Start the safe attachment priming by recalling the writing task,then let the subject wear the EEG cap to watch the friend participate in the monetary gambling task,and use ERP to record the EEG of the subject when watching the friend win the money result(P300,FRN).Result:1.The P300 amplitude after the safe attachment priming was significantly greater than that under neutral condition,while the FRN amplitude under neutral condition was significantly lower than that after the safe attachment priming.2.The P300 amplitude of the avoidant group was significantly higher than that of the safe group,while the FRN amplitude of the avoidant group was significantly lower than that of the safe group.Under neutral conditions,the P300 amplitude in the avoidance group was significantly smaller than that in the safety group,and after the initiation of safe attachment,it was significantly larger than that in the safety group.3.For the FRN component,the FRN amplitude of the avoidance group was significantly smaller than that of the neutral condition after the safe attachment priming,while there was no significant difference in the safe group;The FRN amplitude of the avoidance group is always greater than that of the safety group.Conclusion:1.The safe attachment priming has improved the positive empathy ability of individuals with safe attachment and avoidant attachment to a certain extent.2.The safe attachment priming affects positive empathy and is regulated by attachment styles.Compared to safe attachment,safe attachment priming has a better effect on avoidance attachment.After the safe attachment priming,avoidant attachment temporarily enhances the inner sense of secure attachment,weakens attention and avoidance of stimuli,reduces the level of inner conflict,and enables individuals with avoidant attachment to invest more cognitive resources,thereby enhancing empathy response and positive empathy.