The affective component of the secure base schema: affective priming with representations of attachment security

Using an affective priming procedure (S. T. Murphy & R. B. Zajonc, 1993), 7 studies examined the effects of the contextual activation of representations of attachment security (secure base schema) on the evaluation of neutral stimuli under either neutral or stressful contexts. In all the studies, participants also reported on their attachment style. Results indicated that the subliminal priming of secure base representations led to more positive affective reactions to neutral stimuli than did the subliminal priming of neutral or no pictures under both neutral and stressful contexts. Although the subliminal priming of positively valued, attachment-unrelated representations heightened positive evaluations under neutral contexts, it failed to elicit positive affect under stressful contexts. The results also revealed interesting effects of attachment style. The discussion focuses on the affective component of the secure base schema.