Stress and accessibility of proximity-related thoughts: Exploring the normative and intraindividual components of attachment theory

Three studies examine the effects of stress on the accessibility of proximi ty-related thoughts. In all the studies, participants reported on their att achment style. and the accessibility of proximity themes and worries in a l exical decision task was assessed upon the priming of a stress or neutral w ord. In Study 2, the primed stress word was semantically related to attachm ent themes. In Study 3, lexical decisions were made under low or high cogni tive load conditions. Overall, the priming of a stress word led to increase d accessibility of proximity themes. regardless of attachment style. Anxiou s-ambivalent people also showed high accessibility to proximity themes and worries in both neutral and stress contexts. In most conditions, avoidant p ersons' reactions were similar to those of secure persons. However, they sh owed no accessibility to proximity worries even after the priming of a sema ntically related word and reacted with high accessibility to these worries upon the addition of cognitive load.