Article

What will I tell youabout my marriage? Therelationship betweenattachment andautobiographical memoryof married life

Yan Wang1, Dahua Wang1, Brooke C. Feeney2,and Fengzhan Li3

AbstractThe relationship between attachment orientation and the emotional and thematiccontent of autobiographical memory about marriage in later life was investigated. A totalof 242 older married adults received a quick recall interview to retrieve as many eventsas one could of what happened in his or her marital life. Each event was rated by theparticipant on its emotional valence, and its thematic content was coded by two ratersaccording to three themes: interaction mode of the couple, life domain, and inter-personal context. Results indicated that attachment security and attachment avoidance,but not attachment anxiety, predicted the emotional valence and relationship-relevantthematic contents (e.g., relationship-maintaining life domain and between-couple inter-personal context) of marital memories. Attachment by gender interactions revealed thatmen with lower avoidance retrieved more relationship-maintaining events, and womenwith higher anxiety or lower avoidance retrieved more between-couple events. Impli-cations of results are discussed.

KeywordsAttachment, autobiographical memory, content, marriage, older adult

1 Beijing Normal University, China2 Carnegie Mellon University, USA3 The Fourth Military Medical University, China

Corresponding author:

Dahua Wang, Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street,

Beijing 100875, China.

Email: wangdahua@bnu.edu.cn

Journal of Social andPersonal Relationships

2017, Vol. 34(7) 963–983ª The Author(s) 2016

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DOI: 10.1177/0265407516664417journals.sagepub.com/home/spr

J S P R

Attachment theory postulates that people select and interpret each situation met in life in

line with their internal working models (IWMs) of attachment (Bowlby, 1979, 1980).

That is, working models of attachment are presumed to influence the processing of social

information, such as how attachment-related information is perceived, stored, and

recalled. In support of this idea, several studies have demonstrated that attachment styles

influence the way people represent their autobiographical memory of attachment-related

experience (e.g., Kohn, Rholes, & Schmeichel, 2012; Sutin & Gillath, 2009). These prior

studies have focused on attachment effects on the accessibility, emotional valence, and

phenomenological characteristics (e.g., vividness, intensity) of autobiographical mem-

ories; however, there has been little systematic examination of the content of auto-

biographical memory and its association with attachment. The content of

autobiographical memory reflects what is remembered about life events (Levine, Svo-

boda, Hay, Winocur, & Moscovitch, 2002) and thus provides important information

about how individuals construct their past experiences. This study contributes to filling

this gap in the literature by providing an examination of both emotional and thematic

contents of autobiographical memory of married life.

Theoretical framework: IWMs of attachment and social information processing

According to attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973), through repeated interactions

with attachment figures, individuals develop cognitive representations of themselves and

others, which are referred to as ‘‘internal working models’’ (see also Collins & Allard,

2004). These representations may be activated beyond conscious awareness in future

social interactions, such that individuals filter social information through these working

models of the self and others (Bowlby, 1979; Collins & Read, 1990; Fraley, 2002).

Consequently, working models of attachment provide a rich theoretical framework for

understanding the content of autobiographical memories of marriage in adulthood.

Individual differences in IWMs of attachment (also referred to as one’s attachment

orientation) are usually assessed in terms of two dimensions of insecurity: attachment

anxiety and attachment avoidance (Fraley & Spieker, 2003). A number of studies have

revealed the association between attachment orientation and the processing of social

information. As higher avoidance reflects chronic attempts to deactivate the attachment

system (Edelstein & Gillath, 2008; Shaver & Mikulincer, 2002), avoidant individuals

typically drive their attention away from attachment information, such as attachment-

related words and emotion expression (Dewitte & De Houwer, 2008; Edelstein, 2006),

and suppress the display of emotion (Edelstein, Kean, & Chopik, 2012). Conversely,

anxious individuals usually show an oversensitivity to attachment information (Bailey,

Paret, Battista, & Xue, 2012; Fraley, Niedenthal, Marks, Brumbaugh, & Vicary, 2006)

and difficulties in suppressing negative thoughts (Gillath, Bunge, Shaver, Wendelken, &

Mikulincer, 2005), which reflects hyperactivation of the attachment system.

Recently, Dykas and Casssidy (2011) elaborated the mechanisms underlying the

construction of attachment-related experiences. IWMs of attachment are regarded as

schemas that assimilate attachment-related information into memory and generate

expectations regarding attachment figures’ likely responses in future relationship con-

texts (Bretherton & Munholland, 2008). Accordingly, insecure individuals process

964 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 34(7)

attachment-relevant information in a negatively biased schematic manner; in contrast,

secure individuals process information in a more positive fashion. Previous studies have

shown that people tend to construct their relationship memories by assimilating new

information into their existing relational schema (Dykas, Ehrlich, & Cassidy, 2010;

Feeney & Cassidy, 2003; Simpson, Rholes, & Winterheld, 2009). Specifically, inse-

cure individuals (higher anxiety or avoidance) recall more negative attachment-

relevant information in memory tasks and view their negative memories with higher

emotional intensity (Dykas, Woodhouse, Jones, & Cassidy, 2014), while secure adults

recall more positive memories (Pereg & Mikulincer, 2004). In addition, secure indi-

viduals recall interactions with attachment figures as more positive over time, whereas

insecure individuals recall their interactions as more negative over time (Feeney &

Cassidy, 2003).

The role of attachment in autobiographical memory

Among various types of memory, autobiographical memory is particularly relevant to

attachment theory and likely to be strongly influenced by IWMs of attachment because it

involves memories of the self and of the self in relation to others (Conway, 1992). Hence,

it is not surprising that there have been efforts to theorize about and investigate the

connections between attachment and autobiographical memory. Loftus and Pickrell

(1995) proposed that autobiographical memories are created when people use external

social information and existing social–cognitive structures to encode and interpret

information about new experiences. Accordingly, IWMs as a kind of mental structure

should shape the generation of autobiographical memory (Dykas et al., 2014).

A few studies have focused on the way attachment shapes autobiographical memory

in terms of the accessibility and phenomenological features, including vividness,

coherence, and emotional intensity (Dykas et al., 2014; Oner & Gulgoz, 2015; Sutin &

Gillath, 2009). For example, secure individuals tend to regard their attachment figure as

a secure base, which enables them to generate emotional autobiographical memories

easily and to regulate negative affect effectively (Mikulincer & Orbach, 1995). How-

ever, adults with an avoidant attachment orientation have difficulty retrieving emotional

information (Edelstein, 2006). For example, they need more time to recall emotional

events that happened in childhood (Dykas et al., 2014), and they fail to retrieve the

details of attachment-related events (Fraley & Brumbaugh, 2007; Fraley, Garner, &

Shaver, 2000). Additionally, their autobiographical narratives lack coherence and

emotional intensity (Conway, Singer, & Tagini, 2004; Sutin & Gillath, 2009). In con-

trast, anxiously attached adults are more susceptible to negative autobiographical

memories and regulate their negative affect less efficiently (Gillath et al., 2005;

Mikulincer, Florian, Birnbaum, & Malishkevich, 2002).

Nonetheless, few studies have considered the content features of autobiographical

memory. However the content features are valuable in understanding the construction of

one’s experiences. For instance, McAdams, Hoffman, Day, and Mansfield (1996) found

that people frequently express the theme of communion/intimacy, such as love, in

autobiographical memory, and having rich memories on communion/intimacy could

enhance the feeling of closeness in one’s relationship (Alea & Bluck, 2007). Although

Wang et al. 965

thematic contents are thought to be important components of autobiographical memory

(Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000), examination of the contents of autobiographical

memory from an attachment theoretical perspective has been rarely explored (see Sutin

& Gillath, 2009, for an exception). Additionally, no prior investigation has examined this

among the older adult population.

Autobiographical memory in later life

Although there have been several studies on attachment-related autobiographical

memory (e.g., Kohn et al., 2012; Oner & Gulgoz, 2015), most of them focus on child-

hood and early adulthood (e.g., Chae, Goodman, & Edelstein, 2010; Sutin & Gillath,

2009), and it is unknown whether these findings generalize to later life. Previous

research on autobiographical memory in later life (without considering links with

attachment) has demonstrated that aging effects emerge in many aspects. First, older

adults tend to exhibit a preference for positive autobiographical memories (Kennedy,

Mather, & Carstensen, 2004). They are likely to retrieve more positive events than

negative ones (Berntsen & Rubin, 2002), especially ones that happened recently (Gong,

Fu, Wang, Franz, & Long, 2014). Second, older adults’ memories tend to be less specific

than those of younger adults (Piolino et al., 2010), and they focus more on semantic

information (general knowledge about the self and the world) rather than episodic details

(recollection of a specific personal event) in recalling memories (Levine et al., 2002).

Additionally, there is a gender difference in the specificity of autobiographical memory

among older adults, whereby older women’s memories are more specific and episodic

than men’s (Pillemer, Wink, DiDonato, & Sanborn, 2003). Finally, compared with

younger adults, older adults’ autobiographical memory is more coherent due to their

relatively clearer and more consistent sense of self (Rice & Pasupathi, 2010).

Given the age-related differences described above, the existing links between

attachment and autobiographical memory found in younger adults may not generalize

to the elderly. Thus, it is valuable to investigate the association between attachment

and autobiographical memory among older people, as Bowlby postulated that

attachment processes characterize individuals ‘‘from the cradle to the grave’’ (Bowlby,

1973, p. 208).

Current study

The current study focused on older adults and investigated the extent to which marital

attachment predicted the content of memory for events that happened between the couple

during marital life. A technique involving a quick recall interview was used to collect

participants’ memories of their marital life events. This method is widely used in

autobiographical memory research to investigate the memories that come to mind in a

spontaneous, unimpeded fashion (Dritschel, Williams, Baddeley, & Nimmo-Smith,

1992; Ivanoiu, Cooper, Shanks, & Venneri, 2006). Haggerty, Siefert, and Weinberger

(2010) were the first to use this task to investigate attachment effects on autobiographical

memory, as it was considered an appropriate method for assessing attachment’s orga-

nizational function on memory.

966 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 34(7)

Two content aspects of autobiographical memory were assessed: emotional content

and thematic content. For emotional content, the self-reported valence of each event was

assessed. Based on the schema-driven function of attachment and available studies on

autobiographical memory cited above, we hypothesized (Hypothesis 1) that attachment

security would predict more positive and fewer negative autobiographical memories of

marriage in older adulthood, while attachment insecurity (anxiety and avoidance) would

predict fewer positive and more negative memories of marriage in older adulthood.

Regarding the thematic content of autobiographical memories of marriage, we

developed a comprehensive coding system. Although there have been some studies on

autobiographical memory involving theme-content coding, they typically focus only on

a single dimension, such as communal themes (e.g., caring-intimacy and love) (Alea &

Bluck, 2007). In this study, every retrieved event was coded on the following three

dimensions: the interaction mode of the couple (e.g., constructive, destructive), the life

domain in which the event occurred (e.g., daily activity, finance), and the interpersonal

context in which the event occurred (e.g., between couple and outside couple). Sample

responses for each coded dimension are provided in the method section.

First, the interaction mode of the couple was of interest because of its relevance to

attachment. For example, previous studies have shown that attachment orientation

affects one’s perception and memory of diverse aspects of couple interaction, such as

conflict (Beck, Pietromonaco, DeBuse, Powers, & Sayer, 2013; Cusimano & Riggs,

2013), support (Campbell, Simpson, Boldry, & Kashy, 2005; Collins & Feeney, 2004;

Kane et al., 2007), and separation (Gillath et al., 2005). Correspondingly, we hypothe-

sized (Hypothesis 2), regarding the schema-driven processing of couple interactions, that

attachment security would be strongly predictive of more memories of events repre-

senting constructive interactions (e.g., sharing happiness, sharing responsibility, and

support), while attachment insecurity (anxiety and avoidance) would be predictive of

more events representing destructive interactions (e.g., conflict and isolation).

Second, the life domain in which the event occurred was coded in order to examine whether

attachment influences one’s memory of particular life domains (e.g., health, daily activities,

and finances). Based on studies examining personal life stories (e.g., Rubin, Berntsen, &

Hutson, 2009) and existing measures of life events (Scully, Tosi, & Banning, 2000), we

included six categories in this coding system: health and security, daily activity, personal

development, entertainment, finance, and relationship-maintaining domains. According to

attachment theory (Mikulincer, Gillath, & Shaver, 2002), the attachment system is activated

in particular relationship contexts. Therefore, we hypothesized (Hypothesis 3.1) that

attachment differences would be shown only on events that are related to the

relationship-maintaining domain (e.g., marriage anniversary, expression of love, and

reunion); and specifically (Hypothesis 3.2) that attachment security and anxiety would

be positively associated with memories of relationship-maintaining events, while

attachment avoidance would be negatively associated with these memories.

Finally, the interpersonal context in which the event occurred was coded because of

the cultural specificity of this sample. Chinese culture is regarded as an interdependent

culture in which a broader social context is particularly important for an individual’s life

(Wang & Conway, 2004). For older Chinese people, it is common for them to live in an

extended family or stem family such that they usually maintain close contact with their

Wang et al. 967

children and relatives (Chen & Silverstein, 2000). As a result, they are expected to

retrieve information about others when recalling memories of marriage life regardless of

their attachment style. However, the attachment system is most influential in the pro-

cessing of attachment-related information (Dewitte, Koster, De Houwer, & Buysse,

2007). Thus, we hypothesized (Hypothesis 4.1) that not only between-couple events but

also outside-couple events would be reported by the participants; however, attachment

differences in autobiographical memories would be shown only on events that occurred

between the couple. Additionally, previous work has shown that highly avoidant indi-

viduals tend to draw their attention away from attachment-related information and

diminish its influence (Dewitte & De Houwer, 2008), while highly anxious individuals

direct their attention to and ruminate about attachment-related information (Bailey et al.,

2012; Oner & Gulgoz, 2015). Accordingly, we hypothesized (Hypothesis 4.2) that higher

attachment security and anxiety would be associated with more memories of events

occurring between the couple, while higher attachment avoidance would be associated

with fewer of such events.

We also considered gender differences in the associations between attachment

orientation and autobiographical memory content. Although Bowlby (1969, 1973)

proposed that attachment processes normatively apply to all individuals, gender dif-

ferences have been found in some studies. For example, attachment avoidance has been

associated with decreases in relationship satisfaction for both males and females,

whereas attachment anxiety has shown a negative correlation only with females’ reports

of relationship quality (Kane et al., 2007; Mondor, McDuff, Lussier, & Wright, 2011).

Gender has also moderated associations between attachment and sexual goals (Impett,

Gordon, & Strachman, 2008), caregiving sensitivity (Millings & Walsh, 2009), inter-

action with the opposite sex (Feeney, Noller, & Patty, 1993), and other relationship-

related motivations and behaviors. However, gender is rarely considered as a potentially

influential factor in the way attachment affects one’s cognition, and it is often treated as a

control variable. In the current study, we conducted exploratory analyses to examine the

potential interactive effects between gender and attachment orientation in predicting

both emotional and thematic content of autobiographical memory.

Method

Participants

The participants were part of a large project about marital attachment among older adults

in China. The project recruited a total of 697 married older adults aged over 60 years and

living in communities in Beijing, China. All were required to be currently in a marriage

of at least 20 years. From this sample, 242 individuals (mean age ¼ 68.35 + 5.32 years)

participated in the current study. A series of screening tests including the clock-drawing

test (CDT; Shulman, Shedletsky, & Silver, 1986) and the Chinese version of the 15-item

Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15; Burke, Roccaforte, & Wengel, 1991) were adopted

to exclude responses biased by cognitive impairment and emotional disorder. Four adults

who scored less than 3 on the CDT or greater than 8 on the GDS-15 were excluded from

data analysis. The final 238 participants (138 females) ranged in age from 60 to 85 (mean

968 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 34(7)

age ¼ 67.93 + 5.23 years). They had received an average of 11.21 (SD ¼ 3.83) years of

education, and their average length of marriage was 43.38 (SD ¼ 6.64) years.

Procedure

Participants were interviewed in their own homes. After obtaining informed consent, the

study was administered in three steps. First, participants provided demographic infor-

mation and completed health questionnaires. Second, they recalled and reported marital

events during a quick recall interview. Finally, they completed the depression scale and

cognitive function assessment, followed by the marital attachment measure. The study

took approximately 40 min, and participants received ¥50 Yuan as compensation for

their time.

Measures

Autobiographical memory of marriage. A quick recall interview was used to investigate

the participants’ autobiographic memory of their marriage. There were three steps to

complete this measure. First, for the recall phase, each participant was given 2 min to

recall as many events as possible that happened between him/her and the spouse during

the marriage. Second, during the 5-min retrieval/reporting phase, each participant was

asked to orally report those events one by one in brief sentences, without providing

details about the event. All responses within the 5 min were tape-recorded. Third, for the

valance-evaluating phase, the events they reported were presented to the participants,

and they were asked to identify the emotional valence as one of three categories, that is,

positive, negative, or neutral. The average proportions of positive and negative events

retrieved by males and females are shown in Table 1.

Coding. Each event was coded in terms of three thematic contents of the autobiographical

memory: the mode of couple interaction in the event, the life domain in which the event

occurred, and the interpersonal context of the event. First, the interaction mode was

coded into one of the five categories: conflict, isolating, support, sharing happiness, and

sharing responsibility. Conflict and isolating were regarded as destructive modes and the

other three as constructive modes. A description and example for each interaction mode

is as follows: (1) conflict: negative interaction happened between the couple that could

impair the family functioning, such as arguments and disagreement (e.g., ‘‘I argued with

my husband because he did not take good care of our child’’); (2) isolating: a stressful

event happened to one while the other was not present or did not lend a hand, which

could be harmful to the family functioning (e.g., ‘‘I did not have my husband by me when

I was having our first baby’’); (3) support: one did something in order to help the other,

which is beneficial to the family functioning (e.g., ‘‘My wife took care of me when I was

in the hospital’’); (4) sharing happiness: positive things shared by the couple members

(e.g., ‘‘We traveled to Canada together’’); and (5) sharing responsibility: stressful things

coped with by the couple together that could improve the family functioning (e.g., ‘‘We

together looked for my demented mother after she got lost’’).

Wang et al. 969

Second, the life domain was coded into one of six categories: (1) health and security:

the event was about disease, caregiving, death, loss, and other topics related to health and

physical safety (e.g., ‘‘My husband carried me on his back to the hospital when I had a

bone fracture’’); (2) daily activity: the event was about housework and other typical

occurrences in daily life (e.g., ‘‘My wife cooked for me before I came home’’); (3)

personal development: the event was about a work issue, self-growth, children’s edu-

cation, and so on (e.g., ‘‘My wife completed her project successfully, and I was proud of

her’’); (4) finance: the event focused on properties and standards of material living (e.g.,

‘‘We bought a big house and decorated it together’’); (5) entertainment: the event

involved leisure activities (e.g., ‘‘We joined the tennis club together’’); and (6)

relationship-maintaining events: the event was about emotional communication,

reunion, marriage anniversary, giving birth, and so on (e.g., ‘‘My husband quarreled with

others when he was out of town, and then I wrote a letter to calm him down’’).

Finally, the interpersonal context was coded as occurring either outside the couple or

between the couple. When the event involved only the couple, it was coded as ‘‘between

couple’’ (e.g., ‘‘My husband made a dressing table for me’’). Otherwise, the event was

further coded into one of four ‘‘outside-couple’’ contexts, that is, peer involved (e.g.,

‘‘We argued because my husband lent money to his colleague without informing me’’),

parent involved (e.g., ‘‘We went back to his hometown to visit his father’’), children

Table 1. Attachment dimension scores and event ratios for autobiographical memories for malesand females.

Variable Dimension Category Male Female

Attachment Anxiety 2.60 + 1.21 2.43 + 1.00Avoidance 3.00 + 1.41 3.11 + 1.37Security 5.73 + 0.77 5.61 + 0.87

Emotional valence Positive 0.75 + 0.32 0.57 + 0.34Neutral 0.01 + 0.05 0.04 + 0.13Negative 0.25 + 0.32 0.39 + 0.34

Theme Interaction mode Conflict 0.16 + 0.27 0.20 + 0.29Sharing happiness 0.27 + 0.31 0.24 + 0.30Sharing responsibility 0.17 + 0.23 0.11 + 0.20Support 0.33 + 0.32 0.31 + 0.33Isolating 0.08 + 0.17 0.15 + 0.23

Life domain Health and security 0.20 + 0.25 0.26 + 0.27Daily activity 0.13 + 0.21 0.12 + 0.23Personal development 0.15 + 0.22 0.14 + 0.23Finance 0.11 + 0.21 0.08 + 0.18Entertainment 0.15 + 0.24 0.12 + 0.22Relationship maintaining 0.24 + 0.26 0.25 + 0.26

Interpersonal context Peers involved 0.02 + 0.09 0.03 + 0.12Parents involved 0.07 + 0.13 0.09 + 0.19Children involved 0.11 + 0.15 0.17 + 0.23Grandchildren involved 0.01 + 0.05 0.03 + 0.11Between couple 0.73 + 0.22 0.66 + 0.31

Note. SD ¼ standard deviation. Data are presented as M + SD.

970 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 34(7)

involved (e.g., ‘‘We went to the U.S. to take care of our pregnant daughter’’), and

grandchildren involved (e.g., ‘‘Our first grandchild was born, and both of us loved her

very much’’).

The categorization of the autobiographical contents was coded independently by two

trained raters. The percentage of agreement between the two raters on the thematic

contents of interaction mode, life domain, and interpersonal context were 88, 85, and 97

for males, and 92, 79, and 94 for females, respectively. Additionally, the k values were

.84, .83, and .94 for males, and .89, .75, and .90 for females, respectively. Any incon-

sistent codes were discussed by the two raters until both reached an agreement. Finally,

we calculated the total number of events in each category for every participant.

A total of 1,027 events of autobiographical memory were collected for all the par-

ticipants. As the total number of retrieved events differed among the participants, we

calculated the event ratio for each category (i.e., the proportion of the number of events

in a specific category to the total number of events) for each participant and used these

ratios in subsequent data analyses. The means and standard deviations of the event ratio

within each memory category for males and females are presented in Table 1.

Marital attachment. Marital attachment was assessed using the Older Adults’ Marital

Attachment Scale (OAMAS; Wang, Yang, Wang, & Miller, 2015). This measurement

was the first to target marital attachment for older adults. Different from general two-

dimensional measures, the authors assessed three dimensions of attachment for older

people in China (Wang et al., 2015; Zhai, Li, Wei, & Wang, 2010). OAMAS contains 15

items assessing marital attachment anxiety (4 items, e.g., ‘‘my wife/husband only seems

to notice me when I’m angry’’), marital attachment avoidance (6 items, e.g., ‘‘I do not

like to stay too close to my wife/husband’’), and marital attachment security (5 items,

e.g., ‘‘It is easy for me to be affectionate with my wife/husband’’). Items were rated on a

Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Previous

studies have shown that this measurement has good psychometric properties and is valid

to predict marital behaviors, such as spousal support and conflict (Wang, Wang, & Chen,

2012; Wang, Wang, Fu, Jiang, & Zhai, 2014). The Cronbach’s as for the subscales of

anxiety, avoidance, and security in this study are .69, .88, and .76 for males, and .72, .90,

and .83 for females, respectively. Means and standard deviations for each dimension for

males and females are shown in Table 1.

Results

Hypotheses were tested using a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses. In the

first step, age and length of marriage were entered as control variables. In the second

step, the standardized scores of three attachment dimensions and gender (coded 1 for

female and �1 for male) were entered to test the hypotheses that attachment dimensions

would predict the contents of autobiographical memory. In the third step, the two-way

interactions of gender and each of attachment dimensions were entered to examine

whether gender moderates the relationship between attachment and the contents of

autobiographical memory.

Wang et al. 971

Attachment predicting the emotional content of retrieved events

To examine whether attachment predicts the emotional content of autobiographical

memory, the event ratios of positive and negative memories were used as depen-

dent variables in regression analyses. Consistent with predictions regarding the

schema-driven influence of attachment on memories of emotional content

(Hypothesis 1), results revealed that attachment security marginally predicted fewer

negative memories (b ¼ �.15, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ �1.92, p ¼ .057), and attachment

avoidance predicted fewer positive memories (b ¼ �.18, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ �2.28,

p ¼ .024) and more negative memories (b ¼ .17, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ 2.06, p ¼ .040).

However, attachment anxiety was not significantly associated with the emotional

content of autobiographical memories (ps > .560). Additionally, the tests of

interactions between the attachment dimensions and gender were not significant

(ps > .076), indicating that gender did not moderate attachment effects on the

emotional content of autobiographical memory.

Attachment predicting the thematic content of retrieved events

First, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted predicting the interaction

mode of the couple represented in the autobiographical memories (Hypothesis 2). The

ratios of composite variables representing constructive interaction (averaged ratios for

support, sharing happiness, and sharing responsibility) and destructive interaction

(averaged ratios for conflict and isolation) were used as dependent variables. The results

revealed that avoidance was associated with more memories of destructive interaction

(b ¼ .18, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ 2.26, p ¼ .025) and fewer memories of constructive interaction

(b ¼ �.18, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ �2.26, p ¼ .025). Additional analyses considering each

interaction mode individually indicated that avoidance was associated with more

memories of between-couple conflict (b ¼ .26, SE ¼ .02, t ¼ 3.17, p ¼ .002). No other

attachment effects were significant for avoidance, anxiety, or security, and there were no

significant interactions between attachment and gender (ps > .112).

Second, a series of hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted predicting the

life domains of the autobiographical memories (health and security, daily activity,

personal development, finance, entertainment, and relationship maintaining). Consistent

with our hypotheses (Hypothesis 3.1), attachment orientation was not associated with

memories about any other life domain (ps > .063) except for relationship maintaining.

Specifically, consistent with Hypothesis 3.2, individuals with higher levels of attachment

security were more likely to retrieve relationship-maintaining memories (b ¼ .18,

SE ¼ .02, t ¼ 2.19, p ¼ .030). However, the anxiety and avoidance dimensions did not

significantly predict relationship-maintaining memories (ps > .224). Additionally, there

was a significant interaction between avoidance and gender predicting relationship-

maintaining memories (b ¼ .17, SE ¼ .02, t ¼ 2.00, p ¼ .046). Simple slope tests

revealed that, for males, lower attachment avoidance was marginally associated with

more relationship-maintaining memories (b ¼ �.24, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ �1.85, p ¼ .065);

however, there was no association between avoidance and relationship-maintaining

memories for females (b ¼ .10, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ 0.91, p ¼ .364; Figure 1).

972 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 34(7)

Finally, a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted pre-

dicting the interpersonal context of the autobiographical memory (between couple,

parent involved, peer involved, children involved, and grandchildren involved). As we

expected, both between-couple and outside-couple events were reported by participants.

Among the total events, 30.96% are events involving people outside the couple. How-

ever, significant associations were found not only between attachment and memories for

between-couple events but also between attachment and memories for events involving

children, which partly supports Hypothesis 4.1. Specifically, individuals with higher

attachment avoidance retrieved fewer events that happened between the couple

(b ¼ �.19, SE ¼ .02, t ¼ �2.25, p ¼ .025; Hypothesis 4.2) but more events involving

their children (b ¼ .23, SE ¼ .02, t ¼ 2.78, p ¼ .006). However, inconsistent with the

hypothesis that greater attachment security and anxiety would predict more memories of

between-couple events (Hypothesis 4.2), no significant associations were found (ps >

.228). Instead, the results showed a significant interaction between attachment insecurity

and gender predicting the memory of events that occurred between the couple (Avoid-

ance � Gender: b ¼ �.29, SE ¼ .02, t ¼ �2.64, p ¼ .009; Anxiety � Gender: b ¼ .29,

SE ¼ .02, t ¼ 2.56, p ¼ .011). Specifically, simple slope tests showed that females with

higher avoidance (b ¼ �.38, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ �3.50, p ¼ .001; Figure 2) or lower anxiety

(b ¼ .30, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ 2.61, p ¼ .010; Figure 3) recalled the fewest between-couple

events, but there was no association between attachment and recall of between-couple

events for males (avoidance: b ¼ .07, SE ¼ .04, t ¼ 0.53, p ¼ .594, Figure 2; anxiety:

b ¼ �.11, SE ¼ .03, t ¼ �0.98, p ¼ .329, Figure 3).

Discussion

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the links between attachment orien-

tation and the emotional and thematic content of autobiographical memory about

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

Low avoidance (–1 SD) High avoidance (+1 SD)

Rat

io o

f re

latio

nshi

p-m

aint

aini

ng e

vent

s

Female

Male

Figure 1. The interaction between avoidance and gender predicting relationship-maintainingautobiographical memories.

Wang et al. 973

marriage in later life. Results revealed significant associations between attachment

orientation and the emotional valence of marital autobiographical memories as well as

certain aspects of the thematic content of marital autobiographical memories of older

adults. The findings followed two main patterns. First, attachment security and

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Low avoidance (–1 SD) High avoidance (+1 SD)

Rat

io o

f be

twee

n co

uple

eve

nts

Female

Male

Figure 2. The interaction between avoidance and gender predicting autobiographical memory forbetween-couple events.

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Low anxiety (–1 SD) High anxiety (+1 SD)

Rat

io o

f be

twee

n co

uple

eve

nts

Female

Male

Figure 3. The interaction between anxiety and gender predicting autobiographical memory forbetween-couple events.

974 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 34(7)

avoidance, but not attachment anxiety, significantly predicted the emotional and the-

matic contents of marital memories (without considering moderation by gender). Sec-

ond, with regard to the thematic content of marital memories, relationship-related

aspects of the autobiographical memories, such as interaction mode of the couple,

relationship-maintaining life domain, and between-couple interpersonal context, were

more likely to be predicted by attachment orientation. In addition, results revealed some

interesting effects in which gender moderated the link between attachment orientation

and the content of marital memory in older adulthood. Next, we discuss findings

regarding links between attachment orientation and the emotional and thematic content

of autobiographical memory of marriage, followed by a discussion of gender effects.

Attachment orientation predicting the content of autobiographical memoryof marital life

As expected, the current study found that attachment predicts the emotional content (the

valance) and some aspects of thematic content of autobiographical memories. Regarding

the emotional content, more avoidant adults retrieved more negative and fewer positive

autobiographical events; in contrast, more secure adults tended to retrieve fewer negative

memories. The significant role attachment plays in emotional information processing has

been documented in previous work. According to attachment theory and research

(Bretherton & Munholland, 2008), secure individuals holding a positive view of others

tend to perceive and process relationship-related information with a positivity bias,

whereas avoidant adults (who hold more negative representations of others) have a

negative filter for processing and encoding social information. The current results

showing that attachment orientation predicts the emotional content of autobiographical

memories provide support for this attachment-schematic information processing

hypothesis (Dykas & Cassidy, 2011). It may be argued that the results concerning

avoidant attachment in this study is inconsistent with views that avoidant adults tend to

adopt a deactivating strategy for information processing, such as inhibiting attention to

negative information (Edelstein & Gillath, 2008; Mikulincer et al., 2002) and having

difficulty in accessing negative memories in cued recall tasks (e.g., Dykas et al., 2014).

However, recent work suggests that both schema-consistent processing and deactivation

strategies can occur simultaneously. Haggerty et al. (2010) found that avoidant indi-

viduals tend to retrieve more negative attachment memories (schema-driven processing)

but rate them as low in emotional intensity (a deactivating strategy). In addition,

attachment avoidance has been associated with both low accuracy in detecting

attachment-related information and a highly negative schematic bias in information

processing (Overall, Fletcher, Simpson, & Fillo, 2015).

With regard to the thematic content of autobiographical memory, two major findings

can be drawn as supportive evidence for our hypotheses. First, consistent with previous

findings (e.g., Simpson et al., 2009), this study revealed that attachment predicted

contents of autobiographical memory that were relationship relevant, including the

couple interaction mode reflected in the events (constructive/destructive interactions),

the specific life domain of relationship maintaining (e.g., marriage anniversary), and

events with a between-couple interpersonal context. These findings support the idea that

Wang et al. 975

the attachment system is activated most strongly in attachment-relevant contexts and is

most influential in predicting attachment-relevant content of autobiographical memories

(Gillath, Giesbrecht, & Shaver, 2009).

Second, it is noteworthy that avoidance was the attachment dimension that was most

predictive of the thematic content of marital autobiographical memories (as it was for

emotional content as well). For example, avoidance was negatively associated with

memories of constructive interaction and with memories of between-couple events. This

may reflect that avoidant individuals actually have experienced fewer constructive

interactions and fewer between-couple events to recall, and/or it may reflect the biased

social information processing and deactivating strategies discussed above. It is also

interesting to note that avoidant attachment might be exceptionally predictive of the

autobiographical memories of older adults, as research shows that people become less

anxious but potentially more avoidant as they age (Cusimano & Riggs, 2013). This is

consistent with research that has found stronger effects of attachment avoidance on

social information processing among older than younger adults (e.g., Kafetsios &

Sideridis, 2006).

Consistent with the idea that older adults may become less anxious over time, the

mean levels for attachment anxiety were lower than those for avoidance in this sample

(see Table 1). The relatively lower mean level of attachment anxiety in the current

sample may have contributed to the absence of main effects for anxiety in predicting

autobiographical memory. However, because there was still variability in levels of

anxious attachment in this sample, another possible explanation may lie in the ambig-

uous working models that anxiously attached adults hold. According to attachment

theory (Bowlby, 1979; Hazan & Shaver, 1987), these individuals have had positive

experiences with attachment figures; however, their attachment figures have not been

consistently responsive. Consequently, they build their working models based on both

positive and negative attachment experiences. Reflecting these ambivalent representa-

tions, empirical studies have shown that anxious individuals are ambivalent in their

responses to attachment-related information. For example, they show similarly high

arousal to both positive and negative attachment-related information (Vrticka, Sander, &

Vuilleumier, 2012), although sometimes they show greater brain activation only to

negative attachment information (e.g., Zilber, Goldstein, & Mikulincer, 2007), and they

have been simultaneously receptive to and rejecting of their spouse’s support behavior

(Feeney & Thrush, 2010). Thus, the ambivalence of anxious adults may have obscured

effects on autobiographical memory (although there was one effect of attachment

anxiety moderated by gender that we discuss below).

Finally, consistent with the attachment-schematic information processing hypothesis

(Dykas & Cassidy, 2011), among a variety of themes for couple interaction mode (i.e.,

support, conflict, isolating, sharing happiness, and sharing responsibility), avoidance

predicted fewer memories of constructive interaction (a composite of support, sharing

happiness, and sharing responsibility) and greater memories of destructive interaction (a

composite of conflict and isolating). In addition, when examining the themes indivi-

dually, there was only a significant association between attachment avoidance and

greater memories of conflict. These results suggest that (a) avoidant individuals are

particularly negatively biased in their autobiographical memories of marriage, and/or (b)

976 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 34(7)

avoidant individuals may in fact experience a greater number of negative interactions in

their marriages, thus leading them to weight these interactions heavily on their auto-

biographical memories. It is particularly interesting that avoidant individuals have

greater memories of conflict in their marriages. Given prior research showing that the

attachment system tends to be activated most strongly under stressful/threatening cir-

cumstances (Mikulincer et al., 2002), it makes sense that conflict situations would be

particularly salient/memorable for avoidant individuals who may be especially threat-

ened by these interpersonal situations (and who also may be most likely to experience

them). This is consistent with research showing that marital conflict is a common

interpersonal threat and that the experience of it is likely to be influenced by IWMs of

attachment (Simpson, Rholes, & Phillips, 1996). Additionally, the strong links between

avoidance and autobiographical memories of negative interaction behaviors in the

marriage (particularly conflict) may reflect the negative model of others that avoidant

individuals hold. These findings are also consistent with previous research showing that

avoidant individuals construct their memory about conflict with attachment figures in a

more negative way (Feeney & Cassidy, 2003; Simpson et al., 2009).

Attachment � gender effects on the content of autobiographical memoryof marital life

This investigation revealed that gender was a significant moderator of the relationship

between attachment and some of the contents of marital memories. First, a significant

interaction between attachment and gender was found in predicting autobiographical

memories for relationship-maintaining events. Specifically, men (but not women) with

higher attachment avoidance showed the tendency to report fewer relationship-

maintaining events. One explanation for this may be that women tend to be more rela-

tionship oriented than men. For instance, Alea and Bluck (2007) demonstrated that women

are intimacy oriented and that they are likely to use autobiographical memories of rela-

tional events as a tool to achieve their intimacy goal. In addition, Reis (1998) argued that

females are more likely than males to pursue intimacy. Thus, it is understandable that

avoidant men, but not avoidant women, tended to recall fewer relationship-maintaining

autobiographical events.

Second, we found that females (but not males) with lower avoidance or higher anxiety were

more likely to retrieve between-couple autobiographical events. These results are consistent

with previous research (Shaver & Mikulincer, 2002) showing that avoidant individuals

attempt to distance themselves from close relationships, while anxious individuals are pre-

occupied by close relationships. However, these results emerged only for women in this study

and suggest that anxious women are particularly focused on between-couple issues. The

absence of this effect among males is noteworthy and requires further examination.

Strengths, limitations, and future directions

This study has several strengths. First, it is the first study to examine the extent to which

attachment orientation predicts the content of autobiographical memory in older adult-

hood. Older adults with a long marital life were selected as the current sample. Because

Wang et al. 977

they have a large repertoire of lifetime memories, they were considered to be an ideal

sample for investigating how attachment influences the emotional valence and thematic

content of autobiographical memories. An additional strength of this study is that it

includes a multidimensional perspective in assessing autobiographical memory content.

Concerning limitations of this study, readers should be cautious when generalizing

the findings to other contexts or samples. The participants in this study were Chinese

older adults who had been married for approximately 40 years. These characteristics may

result in unique responses on both attachment measures and assessments of auto-

biographical memory. First, old-age and long-term marriage may contribute to a positive

bias in recalling relationship-related memories (Hatch & Bulcroft, 2004; Kennedy et al.,

2004). Second, the specific cultural context of the current sample may yield attachment

orientations that differ in some ways (e.g., in the degree of avoidant and anxious

attachment represented) compared to Western adults (Wei, Russell, Mallinckrodt, &

Zakalik, 2004). Thus, it is unclear whether the present results would generalize to

Western older adults with shorter marriages. In addition, although the findings support

theoretical predictions, they also raise additional questions. For example, it will be

important to understand the null effects of attachment anxiety on autobiographical

memory, to gain greater insight into the role of working models of attachment in

information processing. In the current study, we reasoned that the null effects for anxiety

might be due to an age-related effect or to the ambivalent nature of anxious individuals.

However, another possibility may involve the quick recall task, in which participants

were not permitted to engage in deep information processing. The nature of the recall

task might have mitigated the effects of attachment anxiety on the contents of auto-

biographical memories.

In future work, further efforts could be invested into examining attachment effects on

autobiographical memories using a deep recall task and adopting some narrative anal-

yses, which may provide a more vivid picture of the role of attachment orientation on the

construction of an individual’s autobiographical experiences. Additionally, it will be

valuable to take a dyadic perspective, namely, taking partner effects into account, when

examining attachment effects on autobiographical memory. It is arguable that the

attachment orientation of each member of the couple will interact to predict the auto-

biographical memories of each partner. Finally, a cross-cultural perspective will be

important to consider in future research examining attachment effects on auto-

biographical memory. For example, more research must consider the cross-cultural

validity and reliability of attachment measurement. In addition, future research must

consider that the content of autobiographical memories of marital life embedded in

different cultures may vary. For example, in individualistic cultures such as the U.S.,

fewer outsiders might be included in marital autobiographical memories, and thus dif-

ferent patterns of association with attachment orientation may be revealed.

Conclusion

In summary, results from the current study suggest that attachment plays an important

role in shaping one’s autobiographical memory of marital life among older adults.

Attachment avoidance, and to a lesser extent attachment security, were more predictive

978 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 34(7)

of the content of autobiographical memory than attachment anxiety. Results also indi-

cated that, although attachment is a universal phenomenon, some of its effect on auto-

biographical memory may differ for males and females. This research provides a

foundation for future work that considers attachment influences on autobiographical

memories across the life span and across cultures.

Authors’ note

This paper was part of a conference presentation: Poster presentation at the GSA’s 2015 Annual

Scientific Meeting, Orlando, FL, USA.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/

or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Project of Key Research Base for

Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education of China (13JJD190001).

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