Positive and negative life experiences and changes in internal working models of attachment - a comparative study

One of the most important questions in personality psychology and psychopathology is whether working models of attachment change during lifetime. It is assumed that early childhood experiences influence the formation of secure or insecure internal working models of attachment The belief that attachment representations formed in childhood are relatively stable is no longer so obvious: new reports have appeared, according to which important life experiences may lead to a change in attachment style from insecure to secure or the other way around. The main aim of the present project was to investigate whether and in what manner positive and negative life experiences lead to changes in internal working models of attachment.

The specific style of attachment to mother, father, partner, and friend was measured with the ECR-RS, while global attachment was assessed based on the SAAM and ECR-RS G. The number and intensity of positive and negative life experiences was assessed by means of the LES-M. We analyzed the results for a sample of 156 adults.

The study revealed significant relations between the level of positive life experiences and global and specific styles of attachment to a friend and partner. However, no significant relationships were observed between the intensity of negative life events and attachment style. Between-group comparisons showed that in the group in which a change of attachment style from insecure to secure had taken place the experience of positive events was significantly stronger than in the group in which there had been no such change. The compared groups did not differ in the level of negative life experiences.

The study supports the hypothesis about a change of global attachment style and selected specific aspects of insecure attachment to a secure style as a result of experiencing positive life events.