مجله علوم روانشناختی (Dec 2018)
Investigating the effect of safe attachment stimulation in the level of subconscious in reducing the disturbing memories in students with generalized anxiety disorder
Abstract
Background: General anxiety disorder is one of the common psychiatric disorders that causes an individual's discomfort and abnormality in his behavioral and cognitive behavior. Predatory memories are a collection of memories that are inaccurate and associated with anxiety disorders. Aims: The present study was aimed at exploring the impact of stimulating secure attachment in the subconscious level in reducing intrusive memories in students with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Method: A pretest-posttest design with control group was used. The statistical population included undergraduate students with GAD in the school year 2017-2018 in Qom, Iran. A total of 40 students were selected using a random cluster sampling method, and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (each group comprised of 10 participants). The Revised Adult Attachment Scale (1990), the Impact of Event Scale - Revised (1997), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (1996) were used to collect data. The data were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and independent-samples t-test at 5% level. Results: According to the study results, stimulation of secure attachment in the subconscious level significantly reduced intrusive memories in the students with GAD (f=32/283, p=≤0/001). Conclusions: Based on this, it can be concluded that stimulation of safe attachment was effective on the reducing disturbing memories of students with general anxiety disorder.
