Self-regulatory depletion and attachment avoidance: Increasing the accessibility of negative attachment-related memories

Bowlby (1980) theorized that insecurely attached people use defensive memory suppression to cope with adverse events involving childhood attachment figures. In this study, defensive memory suppression was conceptualized as a form of self-regulation that, like other types of self-regulation, requires limited resources and may be undermined by the prior exercise of self-regulation. The findings of the study showed that, in the absence of self-regulatory depletion, memories of negative experiences with attachment figures were less accessible among persons who reported more dismissing avoidance. Under self-regulatory depletion, however, accessibility increased among persons high in dismissing avoidance. Depletion of self-regulatory capacity did not moderate memory accessibility for secure, preoccupied, or fearful avoidant attachment. The results imply that dismissing avoidant persons devote their limited self-regulatory resources to suppressing negative memories and keeping their attachment systems deactivated.

► Avoidantly attached persons defensively suppress negative emotional memories. ► We tested whether self-regulatory depletion would affect recall of negative memories. ► Negative memories were less accessible for persons with more dismissing avoidance. ► Dismissing avoidant persons accessed these memories more quickly when depleted. ► Memory suppression is an effortful process in dismissing avoidant individuals.