422 Attachment and Information Seeking in Romantic Relationships W. Steven Rholes Texas A&M University Jeffry A. Simpson Sisi Tran University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus A. McLeish Martin III Mike Friedman Texas A&M University motivate coherent patterns of thought, affect, and behav- ior in relationships with attachment figures outside of the nuclear family. Working models, therefore, constitute the bridge between early experiences with attachment figures and adult attachment orientations and relationships. Among their several functions, working models guide the processing of information about relationships. A review by Collins, Guichard, Ford, and Feeney (2004) suggests that information tends to be interpreted in ways consistent with the content of attachment ori- entations and their underlying working models. It also shows that individuals who have different attachment orientations remember and selectively attend to infor- mation differently. Of these three forms of information processing, selective attention has received the least attention. With the studies reported in this research, we begin to fill this gap in the literature. Selective attention is important to attachment theory for two major reasons. First, the development of adult relationships may be partially governed by the extent to which adults selectively notice or seek out information that is consistent with either their insecure, pessimistic Authors’ Note: The first two authors contributed equally to this research. This project was supported by Grant MH49599 from the National Institute of Mental Health. PSPB, Vol. 33 No. 3, March 2007 422-438 DOI: 10.1177/0146167206296302 © 2007 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. Testing predictions derived from attachment theory, this research investigated how adult attachment orientations are associated with selective exposure to information about the self, one’s partner, and one’s relationship. The results of two studies revealed that (a) more avoidantly attached individuals have limited interest in knowing their partner’s intimate thoughts and feelings, (b) more anxiously attached individuals selectively prefer infor- mation on intimate topics pertaining to their partner and relationship and focus on information that highlights their own as well as their partner’s shortcomings, and (c) regardless of attachment orientation, individuals express interest in learning about the negative relationship behaviors and characteristics of their insecurely attached partners. These findings suggest that selective informa- tion seeking may have important effects on relationships and may help explain how attachment orientations affect important relationship outcomes. Keywords: attachment; selective attention; close relation- ships; working models; self A ccording to attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980), mental representations or “internal working models” of close relationships develop gradually from infancy through adolescence, largely in response to expe- riences with attachment figures. With time, these models become increasingly stable and generalized and eventually © 2007 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution. at Service central des bibliothèques - UCL on May 16, 2007 http://psp.sagepub.com Downloaded from