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A net of friends: investigating friendship by integrating attachment theory and social network analysis

journal contribution
posted on 2017-11-01, 00:00 authored by O Gillath, Gery KarantzasGery Karantzas, E Selcuk
The current article focuses on attachment style—an individual difference widely studied in the field of close relationships—and its application to the study of social networks. Specifically, we investigated whether attachment style predicts perception and management of social networks. In Study 1, we examined the associations of attachment style with perceptions of network tie strength and multiplexity. In Studies 2a and 2b, we investigated the association between attachment style and network management skills (initiating, maintaining, and dissolving ties) and whether network management skills mediated the associations of attachment style with network tie strength and multiplexity. In Study 3, experimentally enhancing attachment security made people more likely to initiate and less likely to dissolve social ties (for the latter, especially among those high on avoidance or anxiety). As for maintenance, security priming also increased maintenance; however, mainly among people high on attachment anxiety or low on attachment avoidance.

History

Journal

Personality and social psychology bulletin

Volume

43

Issue

11

Pagination

1546 - 1565

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

0146-1672

eISSN

1552-7433

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2017, Society for Personality and Social Psychology