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Attachment And Information Seeking Strategy Preference In Romantic Relationships, Jennifer C. Pink

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Two studies examined how attachment relates to information seeking strategy preference in established romantic relationships using a hypothetical scenario (Study 1) and an experiment (Study 2). In both studies, we tested hypotheses examining 1) if highly anxious individuals prefer to seek information indirectly (vs. directly) in potentially relationship-threatening situations, and 2) if these individuals tend to associate direct information seeking with negative outcomes. Study 1 revealed that as predicted, highly anxious individuals were more likely to endorse indirect information seeking strategies but less likely to endorse a direct approach. The negative association between attachment anxiety and direct strategy endorsement was …