Attachment and emotional intelligence abilities

across the life course

q
Konstantinos Kafetsios
*
Department of Psychology, APUCambridge, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK
Received 31 October 2002; received in revised form 25 July 2003; accepted 24 August 2003
Available online 14 October 2003
Abstract
The study tested hypotheses about the relationship between attachment orientations and emotional in-
telligence, measured as a set of abilities (perception, facilitation, understanding and management of emo-
tion). The sample consisted of 239 adults aged between 19 and 66 years who completed the Mayer, Salovey,
and Caruso emotional intelligence test (MSCEIT V2.0) and the relationship questionnaire. Secure attach-
ment was positively related to all sub-scales (except perception of emotion) and total EI score. Contrary to
expectations, dismissing attachment was positively associated with the ability to understand emotion. The
results also found dierences in emotional intelligence abilities between age and gender groups. Older
participants scored higher on three out of four branches of EI (facilitation, understanding and management)
and females scored higher than males on emotion perception and the experiential area. The study highlights
the importance of distinguishing fearful and dismissing avoidance and the associated cognitive and aective
processes and provides a validation for the recent emotional intelligence abilities test.
2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Attachment; Emotional intelligence; Working models; Age and gender dierences
1. Introduction
Twenty years of research on the interactions between aect and cognition has laid the foun-
dations for recent work on emotional intelligence (see Forgas, 2001 for a review). The emotional
q
Part of this paper was presented as an oral presentation at the 12th Conference of the International Society for
Research on Emotions, Cuenca, Spain (July 2002).
*
Tel.: +44-1223-363271x2697; fax: +44-1223-417711.
E-mail address: k.kafetsios@apu.ac.uk (K. Kafetsios).
0191-8869/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2003.08.006
Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145
www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
intelligence concept originally proposed by Salovey and Mayer in 1990 has provided a strong
basis on which to investigate individual dierences in how people reason with, and about, feelings.
A recently elaborated approach shifts the emphasis from a trait (e.g. Bar-On, 1997; Schutte et al.,
1998) to an ability conceptualisation of emotional intelligence (Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 2000;
Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenios, 2001). According to this, emotional intelligence (hence-
forth EI) is the capacity to perceive, express, understand, use, and manage emotions in oneself and
other people (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).
Over the last decade, a body of work on attachment orientations has also provided a coherent
account of individual dierences in cognitive and aective processes related to EI abilities (e.g.
Collins, 1996; Kobak & Sceery, 1988; Mikulincer & Florian, 2001; Rholes, Simpson, & Stevens,
1998). Attachment theory highlights the interpersonal roots of adult emotionality contending that
emotional defences associated with insecure attachment inhibit information processing of emo-
tional messages, and block awareness of feelings and intentions in self and other (Bowlby, 1969,
1988). Adult attachment orientations incorporate both aective and cognitive rules and strategies
that drive emotional reactions in individuals and relationships. Secure, anxious/ambivalent and
avoidant persons employ fundamentally dierent strategies of aect regulation and emotion in-
formation processing (Shaver, Collins, & Clark, 1996).
Despite numerous calls for an examination of the personality correlates of EI (e.g. Forgas,
2001) to our knowledge, no research has directly examined the relationship between attachment
orientations and EI abilities. The present study aimed, on the one hand, to look at the emotional
consequences of attachment orientations across the life course thus extending a recent, vibrant
literature on the aective concomitants of adult attachment and on the other, to test the validity of
the EI construct (Mayer et al., 2000).
1.1. EI and attachment orientations incorporate cognitive and aective processes
The conceptualisation of emotional intelligence as a set of abilities (Mayer & Salovey, 1997;
Salovey, Mayer, Caruso, & Lopes, in press) highlights the intricate interactions of cognition with
aect that underlie emotion information processing. A recently developed measure (MSCEIT;
Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002) has been shown to successfully operationalise EI and its cor-
responding four branches of abilities: perception, facilitation, understanding, and management
(Ciarrochi, Chan, & Caputi, 2000; Mayer et al., 2000; Mayer et al., 2002). Emotional perception is
dened as the basic ability of registering emotional stimuli in self and others; it has been suggested
to have evolutionary roots and anities with empathic and emotion communication processes
(e.g. Buck, 1984). Emotional facilitation refers to processes by which aect facilitates thought by
prioritising problems, operating unique memory stores, mood shifting and implicit information
processes (Mayer, 2001). Emotion understanding involves memory processes and structures of
labelling emotion. It indicates how well a person understands emotional meanings and emotional
situations. Finally, management of emotion refers to the ability to regulate emotions in self and
others in order to promote emotional and intellectual growth. Recent studies support a general
two-factor model where the perception and facilitation branches correspond to the experiential
area of abilities and the latter two to the strategic area (Mayer et al., 2002).
The interface of cognitive and emotional processes is also central to adult attachment. On the
one hand, attachment orientations are based on internalised interpersonal expectations about the
130 K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145
availability of the self and other (or working models), which are shaped by repeated experiences
within the context of early secure or insecure attachment relationships. Working models gen-
eralise across relationships at dierent developmental stages (Bretherton, 1991; Main, Kaplan, &
Cassidy, 1985), and are generally resistant to revision and change (West & Sheldon-Keller, 1994).
On the other hand, there is recent, aect-orientated research that supports direct links between
attachment orientations and emotional consequences. Persons with secure models use emotional
regulation strategies that minimise stress and emphasise positive emotions (see Mikulincer &
Florian, 2001 for a review). Those with insecure models follow emotion regulation strategies that
emphasise negative emotions and experience situations in a more stressful manner (anxious at-
tachment), or tend to repress emotional experiences (avoidant attachment). Emotion regulation
is proposed to function as a trait-like stylistic process within adult attachment (Fuendeling,
1998).
Inspired by a conceptualisation of working models of the self and others, Bartholomew (1990)
proposed a model of four attachment types which combines the aective (valence) with the
cognitive (self-other representations) aspects. Bartholomews secure type corresponds to a positive
model of the self and of others. The preoccupied type (corresponds to Hazan and Shavers
anxious/ambivalent style) combines a negative model of self and a positive model of other. The
avoidant style originally proposed by Hazan and Shaver (1987) is divided into two further types:
fearful (negative models of both self and others) and dismissing (negative model of others and a
positive model of self). The four types can also be expressed as combinations of two dimensions of
anxiety (self-model) and avoidance (other-model) (Grin & Bartholomew, 1994). Numerous
studies have documented the eects of working models on information processing (e.g. Baldwin,
Keelan, Fehr, Enns, & Koh-Rangarajoo, 1996) and emotion (Collins, 1996) using the tripartite
model, but there is still little work examining associations between attachment dimensions and
emotion using Bartholomews model.
1.2. Attachment orientations and EI abilities
Although there is little research that has examined attachment and emotional intelligence di-
rectly, there are several studies on the cognitive and aective aspects of attachment orientations
which guide our thinking about individual dierences in the perception, facilitation, under-
standing and management of emotion.
First, there is abundant evidence for the relationship between attachment orientations and
emotional perception. Developmental research has shown that secure infants have sensitive and
responsive caregivers who communicate eectively with their ospring (e.g. Biringen & Robinson,
1991). Recent work on adult attachment documents some emotion perception biases of attach-
ment orientations (Magai, Distel, & Liker, 1995). Magai et al. found that secure individuals were
relatively accurate in decoding facial expressions of negative emotions, while avoidant persons
had lower scores in emotion decoding accuracy (especially joy). Anxious/ambivalent males were
inaccurate in decoding anger but anxious/ambivalent females were more accurate, highlighting
gender as a moderator of the attachment and emotional intelligence relationships. Despite these
interesting insights, Magai et al.s (1995) research was limited in its employing Ekman and
Friesens (1975) test. Recent failures to replicate Magai et al.s ndings (e.g. Zoula, 1999) could be
attributed to the fact that Ekmans test involves posed facial expressions and employs a target
K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145 131
method for assessing accuracy. The EI test which was used in the present study assesses a wider
range of emotion perception abilities and employs the consensus method.
Evidence for attachment consequences on emotion perception abilities is also provided by
research on non-verbal communication accuracy in close relationships (Feeney, Noller, & Callan,
1994). In this study, males anxious attachment dimension was negatively related to accuracy in
decoding their partners positive non-verbal behaviours, as assessed with a naturalistic test of non-
verbal accuracy (standard content paradigm). More recently, work that employed both laboratory
and naturalistic tasks of emotion decoding accuracy found a positive association between secure
attachment and emotion decoding accuracy of partners facial expressions (Kafetsios, 2000).
A further, central aspect of EI abilities concerns the management of emotion personally and
interpersonally (Mayer, 2001). Likewise, attachment orientations are related to dierences in
emotion regulation at dierent life-stages (Kobak & Sceery, 1988; Mikulincer & Florian, 2001).
Insecure adolescents are less ego-resilient, more anxious and hostile than their secure friends and
as adults experience less positive and more negative emotions in relationship contexts. Insecure
partners not only tend to experience more negative emotion but also suppress their emotions more
than secure partners in interpersonal contexts (Feeney, 1995).
Finally, attachment orientations involve complex interactions between aect and cognition that
can sustain hypotheses related to emotion facilitation and understanding. It is noteworthy that
these two EI sub-domains have been found to correlate highly (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2000).
Several studies converge in their ndings that avoidant individuals pay less attention to aect than
secure or anxious/preoccupied persons. In a test of emotion elaboration, both secure and anxious/
preoccupied participants reported high felt intensity of cued emotions in contrast to individuals
with avoidant attachment who seemed to regulate their aect at such a basic level that it is isolated
from memory processes (Mikulincer & Orbach, 1995). In the same study, avoidant participants
also had the slowest reaction times for recalling sad and anxious memories. More recent studies
suggests that avoidant participants are less attentive to emotional events (Fraley, Garner, &
Shaver, 2000) and conversely, anxious/ambivalents pay particular attention to negative emotion
(Collins, 1996; Fraley & Shaver, 1997). Avoidants actively deny feeling distress but at a physio-
logical level they seem to be experiencing heightened stress and anxiety during recollection of
stressful familial events (Dozier & Kobak, 1992).
Nevertheless, the research reviewed above did not distinguish between fearful (high avoidance
and anxiety) and dismissing (low avoidance and anxiety) attachment. Certainly, it is dicult to
develop specic hypotheses about links between the fearful or dismissing styles and emotion in-
telligence abilities since Bartholomews typology has not been widely used. There is, however,
evidence that points to the utility of distinguishing the emotional processes associated with
fearful-avoidant and dismissing-avoidant persons (Kafetsios & Nezlek, 2002; Pietromonaco &
Feldman-Barrett, 1997). For example, in a study of everyday emotional experience, Kafetsios and
Nezlek found that compared to dismissing-avoidant, fearful-avoidant persons experience more
positive emotion in interactions with friends but less positive emotions in interactions with pro-
spective romantic partners.
A further aim of the present study was to test EI and attachment connections across the life
course. This is in keeping with the developmental criterion of emotional intelligence abilities (i.e.
that emotional intelligence develops with age and experience; Mayer et al., 2000; Mayer et al.,
2002) and a growing literature which suggests that emotional functioning improves in middle
132 K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145
and later adulthood (e.g. Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, 2000). In the adult
attachment literature there is some (albeit limited) evidence suggesting that experience and
maturation might be more inuential on the anxious-insecure dimension. Anxious attachment
was inversely related with age in the US and Greece (Mickelson, Kessler, & Shaver, 1997;
Kafetsios, submitted for publication). There is, however, limited information on the emotional
consequences of attachment across dierent age groups. This is an important issue with im-
plications for mechanisms of change in attachment orientations (Davila, Karney, & Bradbury,
1999).
Finally, research on emotional abilities has consistently found that women are more accurate
in emotion perception tasks (e.g. Hall, 1987; Mayer & Geher, 1996; Rosenthal, Hall, Di-
Matteo, Rogers, & Archer, 1979). Recent work with the MSCEIT (Mayer et al., 2002) also
suggests that women score higher than males on all the scales (especially in managing emo-
tions).
1.3. Hypotheses
ii(i) On the basis of the literature review secure attachment is expected to correlate positively with
the recognition, use, labelling and regulation of emotion. Based on less consistent evidence
for dierences among the three insecure attachment orientations it is expected that avoidant
and anxious/preoccupied will be negatively related to emotional intelligence abilities. There
are no specic predictions for the dierential associations of the two avoidant sub-types (fear-
ful and dismissing) with EI as there is limited information.
i(ii) In keeping with the developmental criterion of the EI abilities it is expected that older par-
ticipants will have higher EI scores. There is some evidence for attachment interaction eects
with age but it is not sucient to formulate a specic hypothesis and this remains as an ex-
ploratory question.
(iii) Based on relevant studies, females are expected to have higher EI scores.
2. Method
2.1. Participants
There were 239 participants contacted through advertisements on campus in a British Uni-
versity and snowballing sampling (where older participants were asked to provide introductions to
their own circle of friends and acquaintances at work). Participation in the study was voluntary
and questionnaires were completed individually. The age range was 1966 (average 38.7 years, SD
13.5 two peaks at 20 and 48 years) and the distribution of age groupings was as follows: 1921:
16.7%; 2229: 16.8%; 3039: 11.5%; 4049: N 30.6%; 5066: 22%. In terms of gender the sample
was balanced as a whole (55.6% females) and across the age groups. Forty per cent of participants
were married. Participants had a high level of education typical of the area: 78% of participants
were either sitting for, or had completed a University degree (8% at Masters level) and 20% had a
High school certicate. A number of participants (N 57) were selectively administered only the
perception and management parts of the MSCEIT.
K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145 133
2.2. Materials
2.2.1. Emotional intelligence test
The paper and pencil version 2.0 of the MSCEIT (Mayer et al. Emotional Intelligence Test,
2002, 141 items) was used. The test measures individuals performance on tasks and ability to
solve emotional problems. It provides a total emotional intelligence score as well as four branch
(sub-scale) scores: perception, facilitation, understanding, and managing emotion. Each branch is
comprised of scores in two sections described in more detail later. The four branches can also be
distinguished conceptually in terms of experiential (perception, facilitation) or strategic (under-
standing, management) aspects.
2.2.2. Consensus scoring
Consensus scoring is the preferred method for assessing EI abilities as it provides a solution to
the problem of determining what constitutes a correct answer (Mayer et al., 2002). The consensus
approach is based on what the majority of the respondents regard as correct and has been shown
to be more eective than the target method (i.e. what target identies as expressed or felt; Mayer
& Geher, 1996). Participants scores reect the degree of t between their responses and those of
the norm for this sample.
2.2.3. Perception
Two sections measure emotion in four faces, three landscapes, and three abstract designs. In the
faces task the participant reports on the emotional content of each face rating the degree of
happiness, fear, surprise, disgust and excitement on a ve-point scale (1 no emotion and
5 extreme amount of emotion). On the landscape task, participants reactions to the pictures
are rated in terms of: happiness, fear, anger, disgust. The three abstract tasks are rated on sadness,
fear, anger, surprise, disgust on a similar ve-point scale. Each rating point (1 no emotion to
5 extreme amount of emotion) was represented by a small face drawing to signify the amount
of emotion, and hence ensuring the task was as uncontaminated as possible with verbal content.
The internal consistency for the sub-scale was good (a 0:88).
2.2.4. Facilitation
This sub-scale involves task B (facilitation) of the assessment of participants knowledge of
how dierent moods can be eective for certain kinds of problem solving. For example, the
participant has to identify which mood is the most helpful when creating exciting decorations for
a birthday party. A choice of three options is provided rated on a ve-point scale. The other area
(F sensation task) involves comparing how dierent emotions can be related to other sensations.
For example, how similar is the feeling of contentment to warm, purple, salty on a ve-point
scale (1 not alike to 5 very much alike). Internal consistency for this branch was low
(a 0:61).
2.2.5. Understanding
Section G (blends task) measures a persons ability to label emotions and group emotional
terms together. Using a multi choice format participants try to match a set of emotions to another
single emotion. Section C (changes task) assesses knowledge of how emotions combine and
134 K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145
change. For example how anger can change into rage. Internal consistency for the branch was
adequate (a 0:75).
2.2.6. Managing emotions
Section H (social management) is concerned with emotions in relationships. It asks participants
to evaluate the eectiveness of dierent actions in achieving a specied outcome that involves
other people. Section D (emotion management) is concerned with emotion management in the
individual and in other people. Five dierent scenarios are presented which describe a person with
a goal of changing or maintaining a feeling. Each of a list of four dierent actions is evaluated in
terms of eectiveness. Internal consistency for the branch was low (a 0:58).
The internal consistency of the two experiential and strategic areas were satisfactory (a 0:86
and a 0:77 respectively) whereas the total test had good internal consistency (a 0:86).
2.2.7. Attachment orientations
Attachment orientations were assessed with the Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991) relationship
questionnaire (RQ). This is a four-item questionnaire with brief-sentence descriptions of each
attachment orientation (secure, fearful, preoccupied, dismissing). Descriptions are based on the
initial, tripartite attachment measure developed by Hazan and Shaver (1987) with the rephrasing
of one (fearful attachment) and the addition of a fourth category (dismissing attachment). For
example, the secure orientation paragraph reads: It is easy for me to become emotionally close to
others. I am comfortable depending on others and having others depend on me. I do not worry
about being alone or having others not accept me. Each attachment description was rated on a
seven point Likert scale (1 not like me, to 7 very much like me). The RQ has been typically
included in several studies, and has demonstrated good reliability and validity (Bartholomew &
Shaver, 1998).
2.3. Procedure
The questionnaires were administered individually or in groups of 23 persons.
3. Results
Table 1 presents the basic statistics for the four EI branches and the two area scores (experi-
ential and strategic). The results are comparable to most recently published data (reviewed in
Mayer et al., 2002).
3.1. EI factors
A factor analysis using principal components was employed to explore the underlying structure
of the EI test (see Table 2). A two-factor solution was found both using orthogonal (varimax) and
correlated (oblimin) rotation. The rst factor accounted for almost 36% of the total variance and
loaded on the strategic area (management and understanding of emotion) and the second factor
loaded on the experiential area (emotion perception and facilitation) accounting for 17% of the
K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145 135
total variance. In oblimin there was a negative correlation between factors (r 0:31). The factor
structure is similar to results reported in recent research (Salovey et al., in press).
3.2. Attachment orientations
Each participant received four scores corresponding to the four attachment orientations, an
analytical approach adopted in previous studies (e.g. Simpson, 1990). The secure orientation had
a higher average (M 4:49, SD 1.87) than either of the insecure orientations (Fearful M 2:84,
SD 1.47; Preoccupied M 2:62, SD 1.58; Dismissing M 2:62, SD 1.81). Univariate ANOVA
with gender and age as predictors was used to test for dierences in attachment orientations. Age
was divided into four groups (1929, 3039, 4049, 5066). There were no signicant age or
gender dierences in the secure, fearful or preoccupied orientations. Compared to the lower age
Table 1
Zero-order correlation coecients among branches, areas and total scores of emotional intelligence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. Perception 7.50
2. Facilitation 0.44 5.26
3. Understanding 0.18 0.26 7.66
4. Management 0.32 0.48 0.47 4.93
5. Experiential Area 0.89 0.80 0.32 0.44 5.15
6. Strategic Area 0.23 0.44 0.91 0.81 0.37 5.23
7. Total EI 0.66 0.73 0.71 0.76 0.82 0.82 4.26
NB: N 164237. SDs are provided in diagonals. All correlations signicant p < 0:01.
Table 2
Factor analysis of the branch scores
Rotated solution (orthogonal)
Component 1 Component 2
Variance (before rotation) 35.64% 17.36 %
Perception
Faces A 0.03 0.70
Pictures E 0.12 0.66
Facilitation
Sensations F 0.64 0.27
Facilitation B 0.03 0.70
Understanding
Blends G 0.75 0.01
Changes C 0.83 0.01
Management
Emotional D 0.46 0.48
Social H 0.74 0.23
136 K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145
groups, males and participants over 50 had higher dismissing scores than females and younger
participants respectively (F
1;208
6:60, p < 0:001; F
3;208
4:17, p 0:01).
3.3. Age, gender and EI
Gender and age were entered in ANOVA models and marginal means for both are presented in
Table 3. Females scored signicantly higher than males on the perception branch (F
1;206
11:01,
p < 0:0001) and the experiential area (F
1;157
4:44, p < 0:0001). There were no signicant age
dierences in the perception branch but older persons scored consistently higher on the facilita-
tion (F
3;160
4:13, p < 0:01), understanding (F
3;158
5:62, p < 0:001), managing emotion
branches (F
3;162
5:42, p < 0:001), the strategic area (F
3;158
7:15, p < 0:001) and total EI
(F
1;148
4:33, p < 0:01). There were no signicant interactions between gender and age.
3.4. Attachment and EI
The product moment correlations between attachment and EI branch scores in males and fe-
males are presented in Table 4. Secure attachment had consistent positive correlations with fa-
cilitation, understanding and management emotion abilities, the strategic area, and total EI.
Fearful attachment was negatively associated with emotion facilitation in females. Preoccupied
attachment was negatively associated with EI abilities but none reached signicance. Dismissing-
avoidant attachment was positively associated with emotion understanding in both males and
females and the strategic area.
Given that attachment orientations were simultaneous assessed, a multiple regression analysis
was conducted as a further test of association between attachment orientations and EI abilities
(Table 5). Generally, the result agreed with the bivariate correlations in Table 4. The secure
Table 3
EI and age and gender dierences
1929 (N 105) 3039 (N 24) 4049 (N 62) 5066 (N 46)
M F TL M F TL M F TL M F TL
Perception 43.59
(7.12)
46.37
(6.05)
45.15
(6.64)
43.56
(9.20)
47.35
(6.47)
45.77
(7.77)
42.90
(9.95)
48.58
(6.71)
46.34
(8.53)
44.74
(8.85)
47.45
(5.30)
46.04
(7.42)
Facilitation 37.49
(3.92)
37.63
(5.36)
37.56
(4.63)
37.72
(4.07)
38.65
(5.33)
38.27
(4.74)
39.76
(4.80)
41.44
(5.67)
40.71
(5.32)
38.64
(5.21)
41.95
(5.43)
40.10
(5.50)
Understanding 49.32
(6.92)
46.65
(7.67)
48.03
(7.36)
54.23
(3.03)
51.82
(7.35)
52.81
(5.94)
53.22
(3.85)
51.57
(7.89)
52.30
(6.44)
52.49
(6.22)
52.41
(7.80)
52.45
(6.90)
Management 35.45
(4.87)
36.49
(4.64)
35.96
(4.75)
40.29
(3.17)
38.89
(3.60)
39.47
(3.40)
38.87
(4.87)
39.73
(4.95)
39.37
(4.88)
38.63
(5.49)
38.21
(5.12)
38.45
(5.28)
Area I experiential 41.11
(3.44)
42.66
(4.06)
41.86
(3.80)
41.54
(4.79)
42.32
(4.57)
41.00
(4.53)
41.04
(6.63)
45.19
(4.34)
43.39
(5.77)
41.59
(6.33)
44.77
(4.52)
43.02
(5.75)
Area II strategic 42.39
(5.32)
41.56
(5.25)
41.00
(5.26)
47.26
(2.55)
45.35
(4.87)
46.14
(4.09)
46.05
(3.58)
45.68
(6.02)
45.84
(5.05)
45.55
(4.90)
45.31
(5.51)
45.44
(5.12)
EI 41.78
(3.32)
41.83
(3.95)
41.80
(3.59)
44.40
(3.27)
43.84
(3.15)
44.07
(3.11)
43.52
(4.76)
45.46
(4.73)
44.59
(4.79)
43.28
(5.00)
45.04
(4.10)
44.13
(4.60)
NB: Means and standard deviations (in parenthesis). M males, F females, TL total group.
K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145 137
orientation had signicant, positive correlations with emotion facilitation, understanding, man-
agement, the strategic area and total EI scores and the dismissing orientation had positive as-
sociations with emotion understanding and the strategic area. There were also negative
correlations between preoccupied orientation and emotion perception and the experiential area
but these should be interpreted with caution given the large number of tests involved.
Additionally, attachment by age interactions were tested by creating dummy variables for age,
centring and then multiplying before entering in the second step of the regression (Aiken & West,
1991). Of the 28 additional tests, only age by fearful attachment had a signicant interaction in
predicting the experiential area scores (b 0:19, p 0:01; DR
2
0:08, F change 3.74,
p < 0:001). That is, being younger and fearful was positively associated with the experiential area
scores. We also found two further interactions between age and fearful attachment in the pre-
diction of perception and total EI scores (in the same direction), signicant at the p < 0:05 level.
4. Discussion
Although it has been argued recently that attachment is likely to be related to emotional in-
telligence (Kim, submitted for publication), the present study provides the rst empirical evidence,
to our knowledge, that certain attachment orientations are related to specic EI abilities assessed
with the recently developed measure (MSCEIT, Mayer et al., 2002). Furthermore, by employing a
sample of participants from a wide age range it was possible to establish predictive validity of
Table 4
Zero-order correlations between attachment styles and EI branch and area scores by gender
Secure Fearful Preoccupied Dismissing
M F TL M F TL M F TL M F TL
Perception 0.11 )0.02 0.08 )0.15 )0.09 )0.10 )0.08 )0.04 )0.16 )0.07 )0.17 )0.11
A. Faces 0.09 )0.04 0.07 )0.03 )0.09 )0.03 )0.01 0.09 )0.05 )0.14 )0.06 )0.12
E. Pictures 0.11 0.01 0.07 )0.18 )0.07 )0.11 )0.10 )0.13 )0.21 0.03 )0.21

)0.06
Facilitation 0.05 0.32

0.20

0.01 )0.15 0.01 )0.02 0.10 )0.06 )0.05 )0.11 )0.05

B. Sensation )0.18 )0.02 )0.07 0.03 )0.01 0.05 )0.07 )0.03 )0.10 )0.21 )0.13 )0.16
F. Facilitation 0.27

0.48

0.35

)0.05 )0.23

)0.08 0.03 0.17 0.01 0.13 )0.04 0.05

Understanding 0.16 0.32

0.23

)0.06 )0.03 )0.01 )0.01 0.12 )0.04 0.37

0.21

0.28

C. Changes 0.12 0.20 0.18

)0.16 )0.06 )0.07 )0.04 0.11 )0.07 0.30

0.22

0.26

G. Blends 0.19 0.30

0.22

0.01 0.06 0.07 0.05 0.06 )0.01 0.27

0.16 0.22

Management 0.11 0.26

0.19

0.01 )0.04 0.02 )0.01 0.08 0.04 0.11 0.01 0.04

D. Emotion
management
0.02 0.11 0.09 )0.05 )0.07 )0.05 0.16 )0.08 0.02 0.10 )0.07 )0.01
H. Emotion
relationships
0.13 0.29

0.20

0.04 )0.01 0.08 )0.10 0.15 )0.02 0.09 0.05 0.08

Area1: experiential 0.10 0.14 0.15 )0.17 )0.14 )0.08 )0.07 0.06 )0.16 )0.02 )0.20

)0.07
Area 2: strategic 0.16 0.33

0.26

)0.03 )0.04 )0.03 0.01 0.12 0.05 0.28

0.15 0.20

Total EI 0.21 0.32

0.28

)0.15 )0.10 )0.09 )0.03 0.11 )0.04 0.15 0.01 0.06

NB: N 164237.

p < 0:05,

p < 0:01,

p < 0:001. M males, F females, TL total group.
138 K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145
Table 5
Multiple regressions of EI branches and areas on attachment orientations
Perception Facilitation Understanding Management Area 1 Area 2 EI total
R
2
b R
2
b R
2
b R
2
b R
2
b R
2
b R
2
b
Step 1 0.04

0.05

0.16

0.05 0.05 0.12

0.09

Secure 0.04 0.18

0.22

0.17

0.10 0.24

0.24

Fearful )0.07 0.07 )0.01 0.08 )0.03 0.01 )0.03

Preoccupied )0.15

)0.07 )0.08 0.01 )0.16

0.01 )0.05
Dismissing )0.04 0.02 0.30

0.09 0.03 0.23

0.15

NB: N 164237.

p < 0:05,

p < 0:01,

p < 0:001.
K
.
K
a
f
e
t
s
i
o
s
/
P
e
r
s
o
n
a
l
i
t
y
a
n
d
I
n
d
i
v
i
d
u
a
l
D
i

e
r
e
n
c
e
s
3
7
(
2
0
0
4
)
1
2
9

1
4
5
1
3
9
MSCEIT to do with attachment orientations and also to test for age dierences in attachment and
EI.
In line with the hypotheses, secure attachment was consistently positively related to three out of
four EI branches (facilitation, understanding and management), the strategic area and total EI
scores. Certain tasks were particularly predictive of the secure attachment orientation (facilitation,
blends and emotion management in relationships). These results were generally representative in
both males and females and did not show any interactions with age. As expected, preoccupied
attachment orientation was negatively associated with emotional intelligence abilities but this
result achieved signicance only for the rst branch (perception abilities and especially the pic-
tures task). The results concerning fearful-avoidant attachment and EI abilities were in line with
expectations but not at statistically signicant levels.
Maybe one of the most interesting ndings of the present study was the strong, positive rela-
tionship between dismissing-avoidant attachment and emotion understanding in both males and
females and for both changes and blends tasks. At rst sight this nding seems to go against
observations from research using the tripartite model that avoidants are generally emotionally
defensive (Fuendeling, 1998). Developmental theory also sees avoidance as a result of emotional
socialisation in environments where aective experiences are undervalued and consciously denied
(Main, 1991). However, more recent studies using the four-type model have begun to uncover
dierences in the emotional defences of dismissing and fearful-avoidant persons. For example,
compared to fearful-avoidants, dismissing-avoidant persons seem to handle emotions more ef-
fectively in order to promote personal wellbeing (Fraley & Shaver, 1997; Fraley et al., 2000). Also,
Searle and Meara (1999) found that secure and dismissing-avoidant participants experienced
lower levels of emotional intensity than preoccupied and fearful persons. Less intense aective
experience of emotion may enhance cognitive processes of understanding emotions (e.g. catego-
rising, labelling, etc.), a hypothesis in line with the information processing basis of EI (Mayer &
Salovey, 1997). Finally, it is noteworthy that both in ours, and Searle and Mearas (1999) studies
the emotional outcomes (EI, emotion intensity) were associated primarily with the positive self-
model (secure and dismissing orientations) which corresponds to the lower end of the anxiety
dimension in terms of the contemporary two-dimensional model of adult attachment organisa-
tion.
This line of thought is also in keeping with Crittendens (1998) developmental-information
processing model. From this perspective, dismissing-avoidant persons are socialised in relation-
ships where there is a predictable punishment of aective signals that leads them to utilise cog-
nitive routes of understanding emotional exchanges in favour of aective routes. Future research
should investigate dierences in the processing of emotion information (e.g. cognitive vs. aective
routes) between the avoidant attachment orientations.
There are also important implications in the area of clinical practice with the possibility that
some types of psychotherapy (e.g. RET) might be more suitable for participants with certain types
of insecure attachment orientations than others. For example, dismissing avoidant persons might
be more amenable to structured, cognitive-oriented restructuring of emotions whereas fearful-
avoidants might be more responsive to behaviourally-oriented manipulation of aect.
Another aspect of this work was the exploration of possible attachment and emotion links at
dierent life-stages. Generally, the results support the idea that secure and insecure attachment
orientations consistently aect peoples abilities across the life stages and that emotional abilities
140 K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145
improve with age (Carstensen et al., 2000; Mayer et al., 2000). Moreover, the present study
provided some evidence that emotional abilities maybe dierentially related to certain insecure
attachment orientations across the life course. Fearful-avoidant attachment was negatively related
to emotion perception abilities as a function of age. Although a limited eect, the younger, fearful
persons improved emotional perception is consistent with evidence from an experimental study
that fearful college students were more vigilant in the perception of happy and angry facial ex-
pressions than preoccupied or dismissing-avoidants (Niedenthal, Brauer, Robin, & Innes-Ker,
2002). Further analyses of the current data revealed that the age by fearful attachment interaction
eect was particularly strong for the pictures sub-scale and especially attributions of anger and
happiness (as in Niedenthal et al., 2002, where younger fearful individuals were particularly
sensitive in anchoring anger to environmental stimuli). Future research should aim to replicate
this nding and also to explore the underlying processes (e.g. motivation, attention, etc.). Since
measurement of attachment orientations was not in terms of exclusive types or categories, but
rather in terms of interrelated dimensions (orientations), further research should also test whether
the use of exclusive types predicts emotional dierences.
4.1. Age and gender dierences in EI
The results from this study provide further conrmation of the developmental criterion of
emotional abilities (e.g. Mayer et al., 2000) as older individuals scored higher on most of the EI
components (facilitation, understanding and management branches). However, to fully test the
life cycle of adult emotionality, research into emotional intelligence in older age is necessary.
The ndings regarding females superiority solely in the perception of emotion and the expe-
riential branch are in keeping with a long and inconclusive tradition of gender dierences in non-
verbal abilities (e.g. Hall, 1987). However, the fact that there were no signicant dierences in the
other aspects of EI gives credence to the MSCEIT test in that it seems to minimise suggestibility
eects (i.e. usually the observed gender dierences are due to females expressivity and reporting
compliance).
4.2. Limitations
As with all correlational work one important caveat is that no causal inferences can be made on
the basis of the analyses presented in this study between attachment and emotional intelligence. In
fact, it is likely that both constructs are inuenced by the same emotion regulation processes that
infuse cognitive with aective biases. A further limitation concerns the employment of a more
reliable measure of adult attachment. In this study, the relationship questionnaire was chosen in
order to address questions involving Bartholomews typology. However, recently developed di-
mensional scales (e.g. Fraley et al., 2000) can be used so that dierences in the four attachment
types can be examined.
4.3. Future directions
The results of the current study point to a number of interesting next steps. Firstly, future
research should distinguish between cognitive and aective oriented emotional abilities across the
K. Kafetsios / Personality and Individual Dierences 37 (2004) 129145 141
life stages. Clinical research could test whether therapeutic interventions that target the cognitive
or emotional aspect of adult attachment dierentially could be more eective for each insecure
style.
In terms of methodology and operationalisation of emotional intelligence abilities, future re-
search using self-report methods could look closer at dynamic aspects of emotional intelligence
abilities (emotion dierentiation and emotion regulation) as suggested by emerging themes of
emotion research (e.g. emotion dierentiation, Feldman-Barrett & Gross, 2001). The interplay of
cognitive and aective components of attachment orientations can be a fruitful avenue of research
also from the perspective of social-cognitive neuroscience (Oshner & Lieberman, 2001).
The interaction of cognitive and aective components of attachment orientations is an area in
which more research is needed also within relational contexts (Collins, 1996). Secure and insecure
attachment orientations play a central role in empathic accuracy in relationships (Simpson, Ickes,
& Grich, 1999) and it is very likely that dierences in emotional intelligence abilities inuence
other aspects of the proximal level of interaction in close relationships (Fincham, 1995). For
instance, there is recent evidence that emotion management abilities predict satisfaction with
relationships above personality dierences (Lopes, Salovey, & Straus, 2003) and further work
could compare older, happily married couples with less well-adjusted ones. Finally, the emotional
abilities of successful and unsuccessful relationships across the life-span (be it from an attachment
perspective or not) should be the object of future research as there is very limited information of a
longitudinal nature.
5. Conclusion
The study provided evidence for individual dierences in emotional intelligence abilities in
terms of attachment orientations and provided a validation for the new emotional intelligence
construct. The results highlighted dierences between the avoidant attachment orientations and
age stage dierences. These results are particularly convincing given the dierent methods em-
ployed to measure EI and attachment orientations (ability and self-report measures).
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Victoria Mitchell and Jean Yeadon for their assistance with
data collection and Dr. Youngmee Kim and Paulo Lopes for their constructive comments on
earlier drafts of this paper.
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