Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Bowlbys (1982) theory of attachment has been shown over the years to be an effective conceptual framework through which to study various aspects of personality and psychosocial outcomes (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). Attachment theory has since been expanded to include God or a higher power as sufficient attachment figures (Granqvist & Kirkpatrick, 2013) and three attachment styles, secure, anxious, and avoidant attachment to God, have been utilized in studies examining associations between attachment to God and psychosocial outcomes (Rowatt & Kirkpatrick, 2001; Wei et al., 2006). Though studies have found that insecure attachment to God is positively correlated with worry and obsessive-compulsive tendencies (i.e. scrupulosity), attachment to God has never been examined in relation to perfectionistic tendencies (Fergus & Rowatt, 2014; Rowatt & Kirkpatrick, 2002). The goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between insecure attachment to God (i.e. anxious and avoidant dimensions) and certain dimensions of perfectionism (i.e. socially prescribed and self-oriented) as identified by Hewitt and Flett (1991). Specifically, the present study examined whether both dimensions of perfectionism listed above mediated the relationship between insecure attachment to God and worry. The hypotheses were partially supported in that anxious attachment to God was positively correlated with both types of perfectionism and worry, and that both self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism partially mediated the relationship between anxious attachment to God and worry. Avoidant attachment to God was positively correlated to worry, negatively correlated with self-oriented perfectionism, and uncorrelated with socially prescribed perfectionism. Self-oriented perfectionism did significantly mediate the relationship between avoidant attachment to God and worry, but the indirect effect was an opposite sign compared to the direct effect suggesting competitive mediation. Results are discussed in terms of perfectionism cognition theory and implications for applied and non-applied research are considered. Future research on the relationship between attachment to God and perfectionism is indicated.

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