Abstract. Five studies were conducted to develop a short form of the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) questionnaire with optimal psychometric properties. Study 1 involved Item Response Theory (IRT) analyses of the responses of 2,066 adults, resulting in a 12-item form of the ECR containing the most discriminating items. The psychometric properties of the ECR-12 were further demonstrated in two longitudinal studies of community samples of couples (Studies 2 and 3), in a sample of individuals in same-sex relationships (Study 4), and with couples seeking therapy (Study 5). The psychometric properties of the ECR-12 are as good as those of the original ECR and superior to those of an existing short form. The ECR-12 can confidently be used by researchers and mental health practitioners when a short measure of attachment anxiety and avoidance is required.
A series of four experiments was carried out in an attempt to understand a curvilinear relationship found between the frequency of stimulus exposure and affective ratings. The inverted-U function was suggestive of satiation effects. Preliminary experiments indicated that stimulus discriminability may work to attenuate the relationship between exposure and affect, but further experiments using a variety of stimuli failed to confirm the initial findings. The possibility was examined that for some stimuli, satiation effects occur early in the exposure series, and if they occur at all for other stimuli, they do so only after a very large number of exposures. It was not possible to specify which particular properties of stimuli make them vulnerable to satiation effects.Recent studies have indicated that the repeated exposure of a stimulus object to an individual seems to be a sufficient condition for the enhancement of his attraction to the object (Harrison, 1968;Johnson, Thomson, & Frincke, 1960; Matlin, 1970;Zajonc, 1968). These studies have been limited to semantic or attitudinal ratings made in response to repeatedly presented nonsense words, Chinese ideographs, or faces of men. But the older literature on the effects of repeated exposure has been primarily concerned with aesthetic judgments. The results of these older studies show a pattern that is strikingly consistent with the data collected more recently on neutral stimuli, especially in one important respect: the most pronounced attitudinal effects are obtained when exposure is manipulated for novel or unfamiliar objects. Thus, for instance, American students' liking for Oriental music was increased more by virtue of repeated exposure than was their liking for jazz (Meyer, 1903;Moore & Gilliland, 1924). Mull (1957) was successful in making the music of Schoenberg and Hindemith more enjoyable after several exposures to subjects not familiar with that form of music. Similar effects have been obtained in the area of art appreciation (Krugman & Hartley, 1960;Maslow, 1937).
Research indicates that dispositional attachment security fosters empathy, and that short-term increases in security ("security priming") increase empathy and willingness to help others. In two experiments, we examined effects of recalling one's own vulnerability ( feeling hurt by a relationship partner) and security priming on empathy for a recipient in need. In Study 1, the recipient was a middle-aged homeless woman (low similarity to participants); in Study 2, the recipient was a college-aged woman whose boyfriend had been unfaithful (high similarity to participants). In both studies, hurt feelings influenced participants' empathy, but the nature of the influence varied as a function of target-participant similarity. In Study 1, hurt feelings decreased empathy and increased caregiving avoidance. In Study 2, hurt feelings not only increased empathy but also aroused caregiving anxiety. Furthermore, security priming weakened defensive barriers against helping: In Study 1, it reduced caregiving avoidance, and in Study 2, it reduced caregiving anxiety.
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