부산대학교 도서관

We investigated how attachment anxiety and empathy for pain influence female participants' attention to negative social stimuli, measured with the Event-Related Potentials technique. Participants underwent a cold-bottle pain stimulation task, and were given a manipulated empathy rating from a falsified observer. They then completed an oddball discrimination task, pushing a button for rare, angry-faced pictures and ignoring more frequent neutral-faced pictures. Neural correlates of attention, measured by the P300 for angry-faces, were then analyzed. No group differences were observed for participants with low attachment anxiety, however, among those with high attachment anxiety, participants who were given high (vs. low) empathy demonstrated lower P300 amplitudes, suggestive of less attention for the angry-faced images. Thus, participants with high attachment anxiety appeared to benefit from the empathy of the falsified observer in modulating their attention to the unpleasant social stimuli. Implications for Social Baseline Theory and the treatment of chronic pain by clinical rehabilitation counselors and professionals are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]