Development and Validation of Visual Search Test to Measure Attentional Bias Towards Attachment-Related Images

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student in Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran.

3 Professor, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran.

4 4. Associate Professor, Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran.

10.48308/apsy.2024.236923.1704

Abstract

Aim: Studying the cognitive and neuro-physiological foundations of attachment requires measuring it’s automatic dimensions. The current research aimed to develop and validate a visual search test to measure attention bias toward attachment-related images.
Methods: The present study was a descriptive research. The sample consisted of 258 students (153 women) with an average age of 21.3 selected by convenience sampling. The participants completed a computerized visual search test, the revised scale of experiences related to close relationships (Fraly et al., 2000), the adult attachment questionnaire (Hazan and Shaver, 1987), and the stress, anxiety, and depression scale (Loviband and Loviband, 2002). The data were analyzed by Pearson's correlation coefficient and mixed analysis of variance.
Results: Regarding convergent validity, attentional bias has a positive and significant relationship with anxiety (p<0.05). On the other hand, the attachment dimensions (anxiety and avoidance) and attention bias were negatively related (p<0.05). Concerning discriminative validity, the test had the appropriate power to differentiate securely attached people from the insecure groups (p<0.001) so that the insecure groups had more turning away from attachment images. The reliability results showed that the visual search test has moderate retest reliability (0.46 to 0.57) and relatively high internal consistency (0.63 to 0.77).
Conclusion: The findings showed the acceptable validity and reliability of the visual search test to measure the attachment-related bias. These findings can inspire researchers to focus on the automatic dimensions of attachment and not rely solely on questionnaire tools.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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