Coyne, Annette (2009) Romantic Attachment, Empathy, and Perceived Social Support. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
This project explored the interactions between romantic attachment style, empathy, and perceived social support. A convenience sample of 287 (60 male, 227 female) undergraduate students at the University of Southern Queensland completed an online battery of questionnaires. The Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R) was used to measure participants’ endorsement of anxious and avoidant attachment attitudes and behaviours in romantic relationships. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was used to measure both cognitive and emotional aspects of empathy via four subscales: empathic concern, perspective taking, personal distress and fantasy. The Social Provisions Scale (SPS) was used to measure the participants’ perception of available social support. Analysis revealed a significant negative relationship between avoidant and anxious attachment and perceived social support. There was no relationship between avoidant attachment and empathy; however, there was a significant and positive relationship between anxious attachment and empathy. Analysis using the subscales revealed that anxious attachment was characterised most significantly by high levels of personal distress and low levels of perspective taking. Overall empathy was not found to be related to perceived social support, however the subscales of empathic concern and perspective taking were significantly and positively related. The subscale of personal distress was negatively related. These results suggest that further research exploring the interpersonal elements of empathy may reveal more of the mechanisms behind the relationship between attachment style and perceived social support.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Sue Littler |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Oct 2025 05:38 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Oct 2025 05:38 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52237 |
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