Effects of Repeated Attachment Security Priming on Depressed Mood: a Clinical Study

The purpose of this study is to explore whether asking participants to visualise a secure attachment figure or a neutral event leads to differences in self-reported felt security or depressed mood. Furthermore, the investigators aim to explore whether it is possible to keep a secure prime activated over 3 days via text message visualisation tasks.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Unipolar Depression
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Attachment security priming

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 100
• Phase: Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Hants
    • Southampton, Hants, United Kingdom, SO14 3DT
      • College Keep

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

-Anxiety and depressive symptoms

Exclusion Criteria:

-Bipolar disorder

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: SINGLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Neutral Condition; Participants in the neutral (control) condition of the attachment security priming experiment will be asked to spend time visualising neutral events (e.g., supermarket shopping)for 3-10 minutes at a time.	Other: Attachment security priming
Experimental: Secure condition; Participants in the attachment security priming condition will be asked to complete visualisation tasks where they think about a secure attachment figure for between 3 - 10 minutes.	Other: Attachment security priming

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Depressed Mood 1	Depressed mood will be measured using the depression and anxiety items from the Profile of Mood States (POMS: McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1992), which equates to 24 items out of the original 65 on the POMS. Respondents use a 5-point Likert-type scale (0=Not at all, 4=Extremely) to rate the extent to which they have experienced various mood states over the past week. This questionnaire takes 5 minutes to complete.	Depressed mood will be measured on day 7 of the study (immediately after lab primes)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Felt Security 1	To find out whether the experimental manipulation was successful, participants will complete a 16-item measure of Felt Security (Luke, Carnelley, & Sedikides, 2012). This scale consists of ten words relating to feelings of security, comfort and safety (e.g., loved, protected). Participants rate the extent to which the person or scenario in the visualisation task made them feel secure, by rating each item using a 6-point Likert-type scale (1=not at all, 6=very much). This measure takes 3 minutes to complete.	Felt security will be measured on day 7 of the study (after initial lab primes)
Depressed Mood 2	Depressed mood will be measured using the depression and anxiety items from the Profile of Mood States (POMS: McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1992), which equates to 24 items out of the original 65 on the POMS. Respondents use a 5-point Likert-type scale (0=Not at all, 4=Extremely) to rate the extent to which they have experienced various mood states over the past week. This questionnaire takes 5 minutes to complete.	Depressed mood will be measured on day 7 of the study (after 3 days of text primes)
Depressed Mood 3	Depressed mood will be measured using the depression and anxiety items from the Profile of Mood States (POMS: McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1992), which equates to 24 items out of the original 65 on the POMS. Respondents use a 5-point Likert-type scale (0=Not at all, 4=Extremely) to rate the extent to which they have experienced various mood states over the past week. This questionnaire takes 5 minutes to complete.	Depressed mood will be measured on day 11 of the study (24 hours after the last text prime).
Felt Security 2	Participants will complete a 16-item measure of Felt Security (Luke, Carnelley, & Sedikides, 2012). This scale consists of ten words relating to feelings of security, comfort and safety (e.g., loved, protected). Participants rate the extent to which the person or scenario in the visualisation task made them feel secure, by rating each item using a 6-point Likert-type scale (1=not at all, 6=very much). This measure takes 3 minutes to complete.	Felt security will be measured on day 10 of the study (after 3 days of text primes)
Felt Security 3	To find out whether the experimental manipulation was successful, participants will complete a 16-item measure of Felt Security (Luke, Carnelley, & Sedikides, 2012). This scale consists of ten words relating to feelings of security, comfort and safety (e.g., loved, protected). Participants rate the extent to which the person or scenario in the visualisation task made them feel secure, by rating each item using a 6-point Likert-type scale (1=not at all, 6=very much). This measure takes 3 minutes to complete.	Felt security will be measured on day 11 of the study (24 hours after last text prime)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southampton
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Professor Baldwin, University of Southampton

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: November 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): December 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Anticipated): December 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 17, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 24, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): September 26, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): September 26, 2012
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 24, 2012
• Last Verified: September 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: depressed mood; Attachment security priming
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Mental Disorders; Mood Disorders; Depression; Depressive Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: University of Southampton: LO6