The role of attachment style and anthropomorphism in predicting hoarding behaviours in a non-clinical sample

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Highlights

  • Females showed more hoarding tendencies.

  • Females displayed anxious and avoidant attachment styles, and anthropomorphised more.

  • Hoarding was associated with object attachment, attachment style and anthropomorphism.

  • Attachment to objects significantly predicted hoarding severity and cognitions.

Abstract

Hoarding behaviours are characterised by the acquisition of and failure to discard possessions, which leads to excessive and often dangerous clutter and significant psychological/emotional distress. The cognitive behavioural-model posits that a key aspect in the expression of hoarding tendencies is an excessive attachment to objects. Research indicates that attachment style and anthropomorphic tendencies are associated with excessive object attachment and subsequent hoarding. In this study, a non-clinical sample of 283 participants (210 female) completed questionnaires measuring adult attachment styles, attachment to objects, anthropomorphic tendencies, and hoarding severity and behaviours. Females displayed significantly higher scores on hoarding severity, anxious and avoidant attachments, and on anthropomorphism. Strong positive correlations were found between measures of inanimate object attachment, adult attachment style, and anthropomorphism, with hoarding behaviours and cognitions. Subsequent regression analyses revealed that one measure of adult attachment (degree of anxious attachment) and object attachment was significant predictors of hoarding behaviours and cognitions.

Introduction

Hoarding behaviour is defined as the process of acquiring and failing to discard possessions of potentially limited value (Frost & Gross, 1993). In severe cases hoarding can lead to the significant cluttering of living spaces, which may pose serious health-risks and cause considerable distress and impairment of daily functioning for both hoarding individuals and their families (Samuels et al., 2008, Tolin, 2011). Though often expressed as a symptom-dimension of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), previous research has shown that up to 83% of patients exhibiting hoarding as a primary symptom do not meet the criteria for OCD (Tolin, Meunier, Frost, & Steketee, 2011). This is also reflected in interventions utilised in hoarding treatments, as the current, most efficacious interventions employed in OCD treatment, are largely ineffective when applied to hoarding (Rufer, Fricke, Moritz, Kloss, & Hand, 2006). It is therefore clear that there is an overwhelming need to identify other predictive factors of hoarding behaviours, most prominently, those which may be targeted to increase intervention effectiveness (Timpano & Schmidt, 2010).

Frost and Hartl (1996) proposed a cognitive-behavioural model of hoarding, comprising four key attributes that largely contribute to the aetiology and expression of hoarding tendencies; these are as follows: poor executive functioning, erroneous beliefs about the nature of possessions and the self, attachment to objects, and behavioural avoidance. Subsequent research has identified a number of sub-factors associated with the prediction of hoarding tendencies, such as perfectionism (Frost & Gross, 1993), intolerance of uncertainty (Luchian, McNally, & Hooley, 2007), low self-control (Timpano & Schmidt, 2010), and anxiety sensitivity (Reid et al., 2011). However, the aspect which has arguably accumulated the strongest supporting evidence is the tendency to exhibit excessive attachments to objects (Frost and Gross, 1993, Frost and Hartl, 1996, Grisham et al., 2009).

Hoarders often report feeling intense anxiety and discomfort when a stranger touches their belongings, describing this as feeling as if they have lost control over their environment (Frost et al., 1995, Grisham et al., 2009). Furthermore, Frost and Gross (1993) report that participants self-identifying as hoarders demonstrated higher levels of object attachment than non-hoarders. Additionally, in a sample of community volunteers and college students, Frost et al. (1995) found ratings of hoarding severity to be significantly associated with greater emotional attachment to objects. Initial object attachment was the best indicator of subsequent attachments, and acquisitional behaviours, and greater levels of hoarding beliefs related to possessions providing emotional comfort, were uniquely predictive of the initial baseline attachment (Grisham et al., 2009).

While attachment to objects is important, the role of interpersonal attachment in the expression of hoarding tendencies is an area that has been somewhat under-researched. Therefore, the consideration of attachment theory may be useful in understanding hoarders' relationships to both people and objects. Theoretical and methodological advances in adult attachment research have shown that the attachment system remains active well into adulthood (Hazan & Shaver, 1987) and has been shown to strongly affect the way adults construct their close relationships (Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007, Simpson, 1990).

Attachment can be measured on two independent dimensions, namely, anxious attachment and attachment avoidance (Bretherton, 1992). High scorers on either dimension demonstrate an ‘insecure’ or ‘fearful’ interpersonal attachment style. Those who score highly on anxious attachment demonstrate high levels of anxiety toward abandonment, or feeling unloved within their close relationships. High scores on the avoidant attachment dimension indicate high levels of anxiety toward closeness in interpersonal relationships, and a tendency to maintain emotional independence (Collins & Read, 1990). Research has suggested that those displaying insecure attachment may utilise alternative strategies to promote substitute attachments, predominately, attachment to objects (Norris, Lambert, DeWall, & Fincham, 2012). Keefer, Landau, Rothschild, and Sullivan (2012) reinforced this finding, stating that when attachment security is threatened, a compensatory response is to attach to non-human targets, specifically inanimate objects, as a neutral target to avoid rejection. Despite the apparent connection between an individual's attachment style and their subsequent attachment to objects, little research has explored the relationship of both interpersonal attachment and attachment to objects, toward the prediction of hoarding tendencies. A study by Nedelisky and Steele (2009) however has revealed that hoarders diagnosed with OCD reported high levels of emotional involvement with inanimate objects in comparison to low levels of emotional attachment to other people.

An additional potential factor to consider, again substantially under-researched, is anthropomorphism. Defined as the tendency to attribute human characteristics and mental states to a non-human target (Epley, Waytz, & Cacioppo, 2007), anthropomorphism has been strongly associated with Frost and Hartl's (1996) cognitive-behavioural model of hoarding. Timpano and Shaw (2013) revealed that anthropomorphic tendencies were significantly associated with greater hoarding symptoms, with anthropomorphic tendency scores most strongly associated with emotional attachment, as a measure of hoarding cognitions. Neave, Jackson, Saxton, and Hönekopp (2015) also demonstrated that anthropomorphising was a significant predictor of hoarding behaviours in a non-clinical sample.

As the majority of previous studies have focussed on clinical populations, there remains a lack of knowledge relating to hoarding tendencies in non-clinical samples. The aim of this current study was thus to investigate the roles of attachment styles, attachment to objects, and anthropomorphism in predicting hoarding tendencies in a non-clinical population. As research has revealed sex differences in hoarding behaviours (Grisham et al., 2009, Hartl et al., 2004), anthropomorphism (Neave et al., 2015) and in attachment styles (Del Giudice, 2011), the sample comprised males and females.

It was hypothesised that object attachment, anxious and avoidant attachment styles, and anthropomorphic tendencies would be significantly positively associated with hoarding severity and associated behaviours, but such relationships may differ slightly between males and females. A further aim was to discover, which, if any, of these factors predict hoarding behaviours and cognitions.

Section snippets

Design

As the primary aim of the current study was to determine the best predictor of hoarding tendencies from a number of factors (anthropomorphic tendencies, attachment styles, object attachment, age and sex), the current sample employed a quantitative correlational design.

Participants

To carry out the current study, we recruited an opportunity sample with the sole eligibility criterion being that participants were over the age of eighteen. The initial total sample consisted of 424 participants. A total of 186

Comparisons between the sexes

Descriptive statistics for performance on all measures as a function of sexis presented in Table 1. A series of one-way ANOVA's was conducted using SPSS with sex as the independent variable and scores on all measures as the dependent variables.

There was a significant difference in age between the male and female participants, with males being significantly older, (F1, 281 = 16.460, p < .001). In relation to the questionnaire variables, there was a significant difference in the SI-R measure, (F1, 282

Discussion

Hoarding severity has been associated with emotional attachments and feelings of responsibility to inanimate objects (Frost and Gross, 1993, Frost et al., 1995, Grisham et al., 2009, Nedelisky and Steele, 2009) and the tendency for hoarders to anthropomorphise their possessions (Frost and Hartl, 1996, Neave et al., 2015, Timpano and Shaw, 2013). It has been speculated that attachment theory could provide a useful means of exploring such connections, as individuals who are insecurely attached to

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to express their thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and helpful advice.

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