Effects of personality and attachment on social connectedness: the role of shame proneness and shame aversion
Date
2018
Authors
Eby, Rachel Elizabeth, author
Conner, Bradley T., advisor
Barrett, Karen C., committee member
Chavez, Ernest T., committee member
Davalos, Deana B., committee member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
Social-connectedness has many important implications for both psychological and physical health (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010; Stavrova & Luhmann, 2016). Given the importance of having social-connectedness needs met, it is important to understand the relations among variables that predict or influence social connectedness. Two of the earliest-in-life predictors of later social outcomes are personality and attachment tendencies (Haggerty, Hilsenroth, &Vala-Stewart, 2009; Lee, Dean, & Jung, 2008). Shame proneness has been linked to both attachment tendencies and social outcomes (Lutwak, Panish, & Ferrari, 2003; Muris et al., 2014). Shame aversion has been less studied but shows promise for being a more specific and powerful predictor than general trait-level shame (Schoenleber & Berenbaum, 2010). The literature to this point has not included these variables in a single multivariate model. In the current study, it was hypothesized that Personality and Attachment would predict Social Connectedness through Shame Proneness and Shame Aversion. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test this model. Data (n=1,386) were collected from an undergraduate student population in the Mountain region of the United States, and were randomly split to create two large samples – a testing and a confirmatory sample. Results revealed a good fit between the hypothesized model and the data for the Personality, Attachment, and Social Connectedness portions of the structural model. The hypotheses regarding the indirect effects of Shame Proneness and Shame Aversion in the model, however, were not supported. The modified model demonstrated good fit with the confirmatory sample, but the fit was significantly different between the two samples. Thus, a third study was conducted wherein the hypothesized model was tested and modified with the full sample. Implications of findings for theory and clinical intervention as well as directions for future research based on results from study 3 are discussed.
Description
Rights Access
Subject
personality
shame proneness
social connection
shame aversion
attachment
social connectedness