What can you do for me? Attachment style and motives underlying esteem for partners

Two event-contingent diary studies investigated whether people of diVerent attachment styles value partners for diVerent reasons (e.g., self-esteem regulation, closeness). In Study 1, preoccupied individuals more positively regarded partners when they provided help with selfregulatory functions, and they did so to a greater extent than either secure or dismissing-avoidant individuals. In Study 2, preoccupied and fearful-avoidant individuals were more likely to want to gain approval from partners. Also, when preoccupied individuals obtained partner approval, they valued their partner more, and they did so to a greater extent than secure individuals. Continuous attachment measures produced weaker Wndings, but people higher in anxious-ambivalence generally showed patterns similar to those found for preoccupied individuals. Findings suggest that the process by which people come to positively view their partners may vary depending on their attachment-related goals. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Preparation of this paper was supported, in part, by NSF Grants SBR-9727896, BCS 0074688 and NIMH Grant K02 MH001981 to Lisa Feldman Barrett. Portions of these data were presented at the New England Social Psychological Association, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, October, 1999, and at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Boston, MA, August 1999. * Corresponding author. Fax: +1 413 545 0996. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (P.R. Pietromonaco), [email protected] (L. Feldman Barrett). 0092-6566/$ see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2005.01.003 314 P.R. Pietromonaco, L. Feldman Barrett / Journal of Research in Personality 40 (2006) 313–338