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Impaired emotional regulation has been shown in individuals with more psychopathic traits. There is also a wealth of literature that focuses on the links between alexithymia and eating behaviours such as the prevalence of alexithymia being higher in individuals with eating disorders than without and greater alexithymia scores associated with increased emotional eating. Given the links between psychopathic traits and alexithymia and with alexithymia and eating behaviours, we therefore aim to investigate the relationship between psychopathic traits, alexithymia and eating behaviours.

The current study will replicate and extend the findings of Studies 1 and 2 with dyadic daily diary data.

We have existing unregistered studies which demonstrate, in a sample of individuals, that more (vs. less) avoidantly attached individuals tend to initiate sexual activity less and reject their partners’ sexual advances more. We seek to replicate these findings in a new dataset comprised of romantic couples.

We have existing studies (some previously not registered, including this study) which demonstrate that more (vs. less) avoidantly attached individuals tend to initiate sexual activity less and reject their partners’ sexual advances more. We now seek to test models examining the relationship between attachment avoidance, sexual rejection, and sexual satisfaction (see Data Analytic Plan).

Healthy communication is an integral part of successful intimate relationships. Consider, for example, how Chris might seek information about his partner Sandra; he may feel comfortable asking Sandra directly about what he wants to know but, alternately, he may be more hesitant to be so upfront and instead prefer trying to gather the information in more subtle, indirect ways (e.g., asking Sandra’s friends about her). Experiencing a reluctance to communicate directly with romantic partners, especially when seeking specific information, may be particularly common for individuals who score high on attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, or both. These individuals tend to have more turbulent and dissatisfying relationships (e.g., Collins & Read, 1990; Simpson, 1990). This may be associated with the use of indirect information-seeking strategies that can impair the development of closeness and support (Emmers-Sommer, 2004). The present study seeks to examine the association between adult attachment orientation and use of direct vs. indirect information seeking strategies by examining video recorded interactions between heterosexual dyads tasked with gathering new information regarding a relationship-salient topic. The first part of the study is an online intake session in which both members of the couple will separately complete questionnaires about themselves, their partner, and their relationship (e.g., measures of attachment, personality, perspective-taking, partner support, relationship satisfaction). The first part of the study is an online intake session in which participants will complete several questionnaires.The second part of the study is a lab session in which both members of the couple will separately complete additional questionnaires, before engaging in an 8-minute discussion task, and finally answering questionnaires about the discussion itself. Trained coders will view these recorded discussions and record observational data on information seeking strategies used. This research will determine the role of adult attachment orientation in the use of direct and/or indirect information seeking strategies and will benefit from three sources of data (partner 1, partner 2, coder). *Note, at time of registration no data have been collected. Data collection is anticipated to begin in April, 2017 and conclude in April, 2018.

Talking openly and constructively about sexual issues, such as sexual needs and preferences, is critical to the development and maintenance of mutually satisfying sexual relationships (e.g., Cupach & Comstock, 1990). Attachment insecurity (i.e., attachment anxiety and avoidance) may impede individuals’ and their partners’ sexual communication, and thus poor quality sexual communication could mediate negative associations between attachment insecurity and individuals’ and partners’ sexual satisfaction. Using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model (APIMeM; Ledermann, Macho, & Kenny, 2011), I tested this mediation model cross-sectionally and longitudinally with a dyadic parallel process latent growth curve model in 125 couples over one year. Contemporaneously, both partners’ perceptions of sexual communication mediated negative indirect effects of attachment anxiety on individuals’ and partners’ sexual satisfaction, and a negative indirect effect of attachment avoidance on individuals’ sexual satisfaction. Unexpectedly, attachment avoidance was positively associated with partners’ perceptions of sexual communication, and there was a positive indirect effect of attachment avoidance on partner sexual satisfaction. Further, attachment anxiety and avoidance were not associated with declines in sexual communication quality or sexual satisfaction over one year, but for women, declines in sexual communication predicted declines in sexual satisfaction. In sum, attachment insecurity was associated with individuals’ and partners’ (for anxiety) contemporaneous perceptions of poorer quality sexual communication and lower sexual satisfaction, and declines in sexual communication eroded sexual satisfaction over time for women. Thus, improving sexual communication may be an important pathway to increasing sexual satisfaction.

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 fully mediated by expected outcomes. In contrast, in Study 2 highly anxious individuals in the threat condition reported greater desire to directly seek information from their partners. These conflicting results suggest that the conditions influencing highly anxious individuals’ strategy preferences may be quite complex and warrant future research.