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    I Need a Doctor, Call Me a Doctor: Attachment and the Evaluation of General Practitioners before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic


    Gruda, Dritjon and Kafetsios, Konstantinos (2021) I Need a Doctor, Call Me a Doctor: Attachment and the Evaluation of General Practitioners before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (7914). pp. 1-11. ISSN 1660-4601

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    Abstract

    Attachment is a system of threat regulation, and insecure (anxious and avoidant) attachment orientations are important individual difference antecedents to the cognitive and affective attributions of trait inferences. However, little is known about how threat-related contexts, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, influence attachment-related socio-cognitive schemas. Using an experimental research design across two independent samples of 330 (pre-onset of COVID-19) and 233 (post-onset of COVID-19) participants, we tested whether attachment orientations influenced general practitioner (GP) ratings and selection differently pre- and post-onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, when presented with only negative information signals, avoidant individuals attributed positive ratings to GPs, with differing ratings as the number of positive signals increased. Differences between pre- and post-onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were less pronounced with regards to positive signals. We discuss these results in line with signal detection theory (SDT) and provide practical implications in response to our findings.
    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: adult attachment; social perception; medical professionals; COVID-19; experiment;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Business
    Item ID: 17636
    Identification Number: 10.3390/ijerph18157914
    Depositing User: Jon Gruda
    Date Deposited: 04 Oct 2023 08:54
    Journal or Publication Title: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
    Publisher: MDPI
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/17636
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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