# title
Self-regulatory depletion and attachment avoidance: Increasing the accessibility of negative attachment-related memories

# abstract
Bowlby (1980) theorized that insecurely attached people use defensive memory suppression to cope with adverse events involving childhood attachment figures. In this study, defensive memory suppression was conceptualized as a form of self-regulation that, like other types of self-regulation, requires limited resources and may be undermined by the prior exercise of self-regulation. The findings of the study showed that, in the absence of self-regulatory depletion, memories of negative experiences with attachment figures were less accessible among persons who reported more dismissing avoidance. Under self-regulatory depletion, however, accessibility increased among persons high in dismissing avoidance. Depletion of self-regulatory capacity did not moderate memory accessibility for secure, preoccupied, or fearful avoidant attachment. The results imply that dismissing avoidant persons devote their limited self-regulatory resources to suppressing negative memories and keeping their attachment systems deactivated.

# publicationVenue.label
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

# publicationOutlet
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

# authorList[]
Kohn, J. L., Rholes, W. S., & Schmeichel, B. J.