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SPSP Annual Meeting 2010

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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
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The Thin Line Between Reality and Imagination: Attachment Orientations and the Effects of Relationship Threats on Sexual Fantasies

Gurit E. Birnbaum

Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, birnbag{at}gmail.com

Neta Svitelman

Bar-Ilan University

Adi Bar-Shalom

Bar-Ilan University

Omer Porat

Bar-Ilan University

The authors examined the effects of relationship threats on sexual fantasies. In two studies, participants described a sexual fantasy following an imagination task and reported their attachment orientations. In Study 1, participants imagined relationship or nonrelationship threat scenes. Results indicated that relationship threat led to fantasies that involved interpersonal distance and hostility themes. Furthermore, following relational threat, women and more anxiously attached individuals were most likely to use relationship-maintaining strategies in their fantasies. More anxiously attached individuals were also particularly likely to represent themselves as alienated. In Study 2, participants imagined sexual or emotional threat scenes. The findings showed that sexual threat elicited self-enhancement, whereas emotional threat led to fantasies involving both self-enhancement and attachment-related themes. Emotional threat was also most likely to induce negative views of others in more avoidant women. Implications for understanding the underlying functions of sexual fantasies within the context of romantic relationships are discussed.

Key Words: attachment • gender differences • relationship threat • romantic relationships • sexual fantasy

This version was published on September 1, 2008

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 9, 1185-1199 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167208319692
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