10.1177/0146167204264245 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Bartz, Lydon / CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS AND THE WORKING SELF-CONCEPT Close Relationships and the Working Self-Concept: Implicit and Explicit Effects of Priming Attachment on Agency and Communion Jennifer A. Bartz John E. Lydon McGill University Two studies investigated how contextually activating attach- ment relationships influences the working self-concept in terms of agency and communion. In Study 1, 245 participants were primed with a secure, avoidant, or anxious-ambivalent relation- ship and the implicit accessibility of agency and communion was assessed using word fragments. Activating a secure relationship increased the accessibility of communion, whereas activating an anxious-ambivalent relationship increased the accessibility of agency. In Study 2, 123 participants were primed with a secure, preoccupied, avoidant-dismissive, or avoidant-fearful relation- ship and explicit self-perceptions of agency and communion traits were assessed using the Extended Personality Attributes Questionnaire (EPAQ). Gender interacted with the attachment prime, such that men primed with a secure relationship reported higher communion than did men primed with an avoidant (dis- missive or fearful) relationship, whereas women primed with an anxious (preoccupied or fearful) relationship reported higher agency than did women primed with a secure relationship. Keywords: priming; attachment; agency; communion; working self- concept How do our close relationships influence the self? When we feel accepted by a significant other and secure in a close relationship do we see ourselves as more caring and more other-oriented? When we feel anxious about rejection by a significant other and unworthy of love and affection do we see ourselves as less caring and more self- oriented? The goal of this research was to investigate the influence of close relationships on the working self- concept, specifically, in terms of whether the contextual activation of attachment relationships influences the implicit activation and explicit self-perceptions of agency and communion. Bakan (1966) coined the terms “agency” and “com- munion” to describe two basic modes of human exis- tence. Agency reflects a concern for the self. It is associ- ated with separating the self from others and with instrumental, traditionally masculine traits such as self- assertion, self-enhancement, and self-protection. Com- munion reflects a concern for others. It is associated with forming connections with others and with interper- sonal, traditionally feminine traits such as cooperation, providing for others, and facilitating group harmony. In her seminal article, Helgeson (1994) theorized that dif- ferences in agency and communion are largely due to the socialization of men and women in American soci- ety; however, researchers also have explored the influ- ence of situational factors in the expression of these ori- entations. Moskowitz, Suh, and Desaulniers (1994) found that situations reflecting role status were more important than gender in the expression of agency in work situations. Because agency and communion reflect two basic dimensions of interpersonal behavior—a self- orientation and an other-orientation—the quality of 1389 Authors’ Note: This work was supported by research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et l’aide a la Recherche (Que- bec, Canada). We gratefully acknowledge the students in the 2002 class of Interpersonal Relationships for their help in collecting the data for Study 1 and Robin Moszkowski, Anna-Maria Tosco, and Sarah Greer for their help in colleting the data for Study 2. Correspondence con- cerning this article should be addressed to Jennifer A. Bartz, Depart- ment of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029; e-mail: Jennifer.bartz@ mssm.edu. PSPB, Vol. 30 No. 11, November 2004 1389-1401 DOI: 10.1177/0146167204264245 © 2004 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. at MCGILL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY on November 25, 2016 psp.sagepub.com Downloaded from