Top

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior

Published in:

01-12-2014 | Original Paper

Attachment Style Predicts Jealous Reactions to Viewing Touch Between a Romantic Partner and Close Friend: Implications for Internet Social Communication

Authors: Michael J. Miller, Amanda Denes, Brianna Diaz, Ross Buck

Published in: Journal of Nonverbal Behavior | Issue 4/2014

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Using vignettes and online photos, this study explored the relationship between touch intimacy, biological sex, attachment, and the experience of jealous emotions in the context of seeing one’s partner touch a close, opposite-sex friend. Results indicated that hypothetical scenarios elicited significant emotional responses and increases in touch intimacy (as depicted in digital photos) heightened these responses. Males indicated more sexual arousal when seeing their partners interacting with a friend, while females indicated more sadness, fear, and envy. In terms of attachment, preoccupied individuals expressed the most anger and fear, dismissives and secures expressed the least envy and embarrassment, dismissives expressed the least fear, and fearfuls expressed the most sexual arousal. The two forms of touch (face touch and lower back touch) elicited stronger jealous emotions (anger, sadness, fear, and embarrassment) than no touch. Lastly, in regards to lower back touch, fearfully attached males responded with the most fear, females with the most anger, sadness, fear, and envy, and fearfully attached individuals the least amount of fear. This occurred despite the fact that face touch was characterized as more intimate than lower back touch; our results suggest that this form of touch may have been perceived as sexual. We relate our findings to the context of viewing digital photos on social networking websites.

previous article Exploring Facebook: Attachment Style and Nonverbal Message Characteristics as Predictors of Anticipated Emotional Reactions to Facebook Postings

next article Managing Relational Transgressions as Revealed on Facebook: The Influence of Dependence Power on Verbal Versus Nonverbal Responses

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Abbey, A. (1982). Sex differences in attributions for friendly behavior: Do males misperceive females’ friendliness? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 830–838. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.42.5.830.CrossRef

Ainsworth, M., Blehar, M., Water, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Aylor, B., & Dainton, M. (2001). Antecedents in romantic jealousy experience, expression, and goals. Western Journal of Communication, 65, 370–391. doi:10.1080/10570310109374717.CrossRef

Bartholomew, K. (1990). Avoidance of intimacy: An attachment perspective. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 7, 147–178.CrossRef

Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 226–244. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.61.2.226.PubMedCrossRef

Batholomew, K., & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Methods of assign adult attachment: Do they converge? In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 25–45). New York: Guilford Press.

Bevan, J. L., & Hale, J. L. (2006). Negative jealous emotion rumination as consequences of romantic partner, cross-sex friend, and sibling jealousy expression. Communication Studies, 57, 363–379. doi:10.1080/10510970600945907.CrossRef

Bevan, J., & Samter, W. (2004). Toward a broader conceptualization of jealousy in close relationships: Two exploratory studies. Communication Studies, 55, 14–28. doi:10.1080/10510970409388603.CrossRef

Bisson, M., & Levine, T. (2009). Negotiating a friends with benefits relationship. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38, 66–73. doi:10.1007/s10508-007-9211-2.PubMedCrossRef

Bleske-Rechek, A., & Buss, D. (2001). Opposite-sex friendship: Sex differences and similarities in initiation, selection, and dissolution. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1310–1323. doi:10.1177/01461672012710007.CrossRef

Bollen, K. A. (1989). A new incremental fit index for general structural equation models. Sociological Methods & Research, 17(3), 303–316. doi:10.1177/0049124189017003004.CrossRef

Brennan, K. A., Clark, C. L., & Shaver, P. R. (1998a). Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrative overview. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 46–76). New York, NY: Guilford Psychology.

Brennan, K. A., Wu, S., & Loev, J. (1998b). Adult romantic attachment and individual differences in attitudes toward physical contact in the context of adult romantic relationships. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 394–428). New York: Guilford Press.

Buck, R. (1984). The communication of emotion. New York: Guilford Press.

Buck, R., Anderson, E., Chaudhuri, A., & Ray, I. (2004). Emotion and reason in persuasion: Applying the ARI model and the CASC scale. Journal of Business Research, 57, 647–656.CrossRef

Burgoon, J. (1991). Relational message interpretations of touch, conversation distance, and posture. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 15, 233–259. doi:10.1007/BF00986924.CrossRef

Burgoon, J., & Hale, J. (1988). Nonverbal expectancy violations: Mode elaboration and application to immediacy behaviors. Communication Monographs, 55, 58–79. doi:10.1080/03637758809376158.CrossRef

Carmines, E., & Zeller, R. (1979). Reliability and validity assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.CrossRef

Carpenter, C. (2012). Meta-analyses of sex differences in responses to sexual versus emotional infidelity: Men and women are more similar than different. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 36, 25–37. doi:10.1177/0361684311414537.CrossRef

Clynes, M. (1988). Generalized emotion, how it is produced, and sentic cycle therapy. In M. Clynes & J. Panksepp (Eds.), Emotions and psychopathology (pp. 107–170). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRef

Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 644–663. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.58.4.644.PubMedCrossRef

Darvell, M., Walsh, S., & White, K. (2011). Facebook tells me so: Applying the theory of planned behavior to understand partner-monitoring behavior on Facebook. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14, 717–722. doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0035.CrossRef

Edlund, J., & Sagarin, B. (2009). Sex differences in jealousy: Misinterpretation of nonsignificant results as refuting the theory. Personal Relationships, 16, 67–78. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2009.01210.x.CrossRef

Egland, K., Spitzberg, B., & Zormeier, M. (1996). Flirtation and conversational competence in cross-sex platonic and romantic relationships. Communication Reports, 9, 105–117. doi:10.1080/08934219609367643.

Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. (2007). Human ethology. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine Transaction.

Elphinston, R., & Noller, P. (2011). Time to face it! Facebook intrusion and the implications for romantic jealousy and relationship satisfaction. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14, 1–6. doi:10.1089/cyber.2010.0318.CrossRef

Fields, T. (2001). Touch. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Floyd, K., & Voloudakis, M. (1999a). Affectionate behavior in adult platonic friendships: Interpreting and evaluating expectancy violations. Human Communication Research, 25, 341–369. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.1999.tb00449.x.CrossRef

Floyd, K., & Voloudakis, M. (1999b). Attributions for expectancy violating changes in affectionate behavior in platonic friendships. The Journal of Psychology, 133, 32–48. doi:10.1080/00223989909599720.CrossRef

Fraley, R., Waller, N., & Brennan, K. (2000). An item response theory analysis of self-report measures of adult attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 350–365. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.350.PubMedCrossRef

Gallace, A., & Spence, C. (2010). The Science of interpersonal touch: An overview. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 1125, 1–14. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.10.004.

Gatzeva, M., & Paik, A. (2011). Emotional and physical satisfaction in noncohabiting, cohabiting, and marital relationships: The importance of jealous conflict. Journal of Sex Research, 48(1), 29–42. doi:10.1080/00224490903370602.PubMedCrossRef

Guerrero, L. K., & Andersen, P. A. (1998). Jealousy experience and expression in romantic relationships. In P. A. Anderson & L. K. Guerrero (Eds.), Handbook of communication and emotion: Theory, research, applications and contexts (pp. 158–188). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Guerrero, L. K., Farinelli, L., & McEwan, B. (2009). Attachment and relational satisfaction: The mediating effect of emotional communication. Communication Monographs, 76, 487–514. doi:10.1080/03637750903300254.CrossRef

Guerrero, L. K., Trost, M. R., & Yoshimura, S. (2005). Romantic jealousy: Emotions and communicative responses. Personal Relationships, 12, 233–252. doi:10.1111/j.1350-4126.2005.00113.x.CrossRef

Gurerrero, L. K. (1998). Attachment-style differences in the experience and expression of romantic jealousy. Personal Relationships, 5, 273–291. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.1998.tb00172.x.CrossRef

Hanzal, A., Segrin, C., & Dorros, S. M. (2008). The role of marital status and age on men’s and women’s reactions to touch from a relational partner. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 32, 21–35. doi:10.1007/s10919-007-0039-1.CrossRef

Harrington, D. (2009). Confirmatory factor analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.

Harris, C. (2003). Factors associated with jealousy over real and imagined infidelity: An examination of the social-cognitive and evolutionary psychology perspectives. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, 319–329. doi:10.1111/1471-6402.00112.CrossRef

Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511–524. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.3.511.PubMedCrossRef

Hertenstein, M., Holmes, R., Keltner, D., & McCullough, M. (2009). The communication of emotion via touch. Emotion, 9, 566–573. doi:10.1037/a0016108.PubMedCrossRef

Heslin, R., & Alper, T. (1983). Touch: A bonding gesture. In J. M. Wiemann & R. P. Harrison (Eds.), Nonverbal interaction (pp. 47–75). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Heslin, R., Nguyen, T., & Nguyen, M. (1983). Meaning of touch: The case of touch from a stranger or same sex person. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 7, 147–157.CrossRef

Jones, S. E., & Yarbrough, A. E. (1985). A naturalistic study of the meanings of touch. Communication Monographs, 52, 19–56. doi:10.1080/03637758509376094.CrossRef

Leak, G. K., Gardner, L. E., & Parsons, C. J. (1998). Jealousy and romantic attachment: A replication and extension. Representative Research in Social Psychology, 22, 21–27.

Lee, J., & Guerrero, L. (2001). Types of touch in cross-sex relationships between coworkers: Perceptions of relational and emotional messages, inappropriateness, and sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 29, 197–220. doi:10.1080/00909880128110.CrossRef

Maniglio, R. (2012). The role of parent-child bonding, attachment, and interpersonal problems in the development of deviant sexual fantasies in sexual offenders. Trauma Violence Abuse, 13, 83–96. doi:10.1177/1524838012440337.PubMedCrossRef

Marshall, T., Bejanyan, K., Di Castro, G., & Lee, R. (2012). Attachment styles as predictors of Facebook-related jealousy and surveillance in romantic relationship. Personal Relationships, 20, 1–22. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6811.2011.01393.x.CrossRef

Mathes, E., Adams, H., & Davies, R. (1985). Jealousy: Loss of relationship rewards, loss of self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and anger. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 1552–1561. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.48.6.1552.PubMedCrossRef

McGlone, F., Vallbo, A., Olausson, H., Loken, L., & Wessberg, J. (2007). Discriminative touch and emotional touch. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 173–183. doi:10.1037/cjep2007019.PubMedCrossRef

Monsour, M. (1992). Meanings of intimacy in cross- and same- sex friendships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 9, 277–295. doi:10.1177/0265407592092007.CrossRef

Morrison, I., Loken, L., & Olausson, H. (2009). The skin as a social organ. Experimental Brain Research, 1007, 1–10. doi:10.1007/s00221-009-2007-y.

Muise, A., Christofides, E., & Desmarais, S. (2009). More information than you ever wanted: does Facebook bring out the green-eyed monster of jealousy? Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 12(4), 1–4. doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0263.CrossRef

Muscanell, N., Guadagno, R., Rice, L., & Murphy, S. (2013). Don’t it make my brown eyes green? An analysis of Facebook use and romantic jealousy. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16, 237–242. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0411.CrossRef

Nunnally, J. (1978). Psychometric methods. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Rawlins, W. (1992). Friendship matters: Communication, dialectics, and the life course. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Rholes, W. S., Simpson, J. A., & Stevens, J. G. (1998). Attachment orientations, social support, and conflict resolution in close relationships. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 166–188). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Salovey, P., & Rodin, J. (1986). The differentiation of social-comparison jealousy and romantic jealousy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 1100–1112. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.6.1100.CrossRef

Schneck, M., Bowers, T., & Turkson, M. (2012). Sex-role orientation and attachment styles of sex offenders. Psychological Reports, 110, 624–638.PubMedCrossRef

Sharpsteen, D. J., & Kirkpatrick, L. A. (1997). Romantic jealousy and adult romantic attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(3), 627–640.PubMedCrossRef

Tagler, M., & Gentry, R. (2011). Gender, jealousy, and attachment: A (more) thorough examination across measures and samples. Journal of Research in Personality, 45, 697–701. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2011.08.006.CrossRef

Troisi, A., Alcini, S., Coviello, M., Nanni, R. C., & Siracusano, A. (2010). Adult attachment style and social anhedonia in healthy volunteers. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 640–643. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.002.CrossRef

Vrij, A., Paterson, B., Nunkoosing, K., Soukara, S., & Oosterwegel, A. (2003). Perceived advantages and disadvantages of secrets disclosure. Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 593–602. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00221-0.CrossRef

Wei, M., Vogel, D. L., Ku, T. Y., & Zakalik, R. A. (2005). Adult attachment, affect regulation, negative mood, and interpersonal problems: The mediating roles of emotional reactivity and emotional cutoff. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 14–24. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.52.1.14.CrossRef

White, G. L. (1981). Jealousy and partner’s perceived motives for attraction to a rival. Social Psychology Quarterly, 44, 24–30. doi:10.2307/3033859.CrossRef

White, G. L., & Mullen, P. E. (1989). Jealousy, theory, research, and clinical strategies. New York: Guilford Press.

Title: Attachment Style Predicts Jealous Reactions to Viewing Touch Between a Romantic Partner and Close Friend: Implications for Internet Social Communication
Authors: Michael J. Miller
Amanda Denes
Brianna Diaz
Ross Buck
Publication date: 01-12-2014
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Nonverbal Behavior / Issue 4/2014
Print ISSN: 0191-5886
Electronic ISSN: 1573-3653
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-014-0196-y

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Other articles of this Issue 4/2014

Emotional Transactions in the Paris Subway: Combining Naturalistic Videotaping, Objective Facial Coding and Sequential Analysis in the Study of Nonverbal Emotional Behavior

Multimodal Integration of Dynamic Audio–Visual Cues in the Communication of Agreement and Disagreement

Managing Relational Transgressions as Revealed on Facebook: The Influence of Dependence Power on Verbal Versus Nonverbal Responses

Exploring Facebook: Attachment Style and Nonverbal Message Characteristics as Predictors of Anticipated Emotional Reactions to Facebook Postings

Nonverbal Decoding on Facebook: Applying the IPT-15 and the SSI to Personality Judgments

Contextual Effects on Surprise Expressions: A Developmental Study