Behavioral sciences

Grieving the Loss of a Romantic Relationship: Ambiguous Loss, Attachment Styles, and Emotional Regulation
 

Star Sanchez 
Our Lady of the Lake University 

The end of a romantic relationship can lead to grief and emotional distress. Although romantic breakups are common, the grief associated with relationship loss is often overlooked (Reimer & Estrada, 2021). This study examines the relationships among attachment styles, emotional regulation difficulties, and grief severity following romantic relationship loss. Understanding factors associated with breakup-related grief improve knowledge of how individuals cope with relationship loss and provide information useful for counseling and mental health services. Participants include adults aged 18–62 years who have experienced the loss of a meaningful romantic relationship. Data were collected through an anonymous Qualtrics survey using the Attachment Style Questionnaire (Sperling & Berman, 1994), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), and the Inventory of Complicated Grief–Revised (Boelen & Reijntjes, 2009). It is hypothesized that insecure attachment styles and emotional regulation difficulties will be associated with higher levels of grief. Data will be analyzed using SPSS to examine relationships among the study variables and determine whether attachment styles and emotional regulation difficulties predict grief severity. Positive relationships are expected among insecure attachment styles, emotional regulation difficulties, and grief severity. This study helps increase understanding of how attachment styles and emotional regulation relate to grief following romantic relationship loss. These findings could be applied to improve support for adolescents in schools who experience their first relationship loss. Future research should examine additional factors that may influence grief following romantic relationship loss.

Still a Fan? Social Identity and Cognitive Dissonance in Response to Moral Violations 
 

Emily Lunbery
Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi

People often form attachments to admired public figures, using them to express their values and signal group membership. When these figures commit moral violations, the resulting tension is both psychologically uncomfortable and sociologically meaningful. Prior research has not examined how identity strength, identity meaning, and cognitive engagement jointly shape responses to such violations. This study examines how the strength of a person’s social identities influences their cognitive dissonance responses to a moral violation. Participants will list 3-5 admired public figures, complete measures of social identity strength, identity meaning, and Need for Cognition, and then read either a moral violation or control scenario about a public figure. They will report their emotional reactions, defensive or reflective responses, and interpretations of the event. We anticipate that individuals with stronger identity ties to admired figures will show more defensive responses to moral violations, while those with weaker ties will show more reflective processing. Higher Need for Cognition is also expected to predict more reflective responses overall, regardless of identity strength. These findings will contribute to a deeper understanding of how social identity shapes responses to expectation-violating information and highlight how identity driven loyalty can allow admired figures to maintain influence despite their moral failures. 

Esther McCall

UTA

People with functional seizures (FS) often experience comorbid conditions such as anxiety. Recent research has focused on understanding how FS interacts with various disorders and influences emotional regulation. This study investigates the association between FS and emotional dysregulation through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Identifying prevalence of emotional dysregulation in participants with FS may support earlier, more personalized treatments targeting anxiety, depression, and more. Studies will be variably coded onto an Excel spreadsheet, recording result data, reliability, sample size, and more. The emotional conflict task (ECT) results were recorded and as key data points for the meta-analysis through R Studio using the metafor package. Emotional regulation questionnaires (ERQ) will be analyzed through independent sample t-tests to investigate group differences, including healthy controls (HC) and FS participants. ERQ independent t-tests resulted in a significant difference in emotional regulation between HC (M =16.7, SD = 4.35) and FS (M = 10.42, SD = 5.33); t(1147.54) = 22.5422, p = <0.0001*. ECT resulted in a correlation between poor emotional regulation and FS participants is r=0.4123. The meta-analysis reported moderate-high heterogeneity (79%) and the trim-and-fill method estimates 4 (SE = 2.49).