Anxious attachment and excessive acquisition: The mediating roles of anthropomorphism and distress intolerance
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Background and aims: Most individuals with hoarding disorder (HD) are prone to excessively acquiring new possessions. Understanding the factors that contribute to this collecting behavior will allow us to develop better treatment approaches for HD. The aim of this study was to test our assumption that an anxious attachment style is associated with a tendency to anthropomorphize comforting objects and an inability to tolerate distress, which in turn leads to excessive acquisition. Methods: A total of 361 participants with subclinical to clinical acquisition problems (77.8% female) completed a series of self-report measures. Results: As expected, greater anxious attachment was related to greater distress intolerance and stronger tendencies to anthropomorphize inanimate objects. In turn, greater distress intolerance and anthropomorphism were related to more excessive buying and greater acquisition of free items. Examination of the pathways and indirect effects showed support for double mediation rather than serial mediation, as distress intolerance did not predict anthropomorphism. Discussion and conclusion: These novel findings, if replicated, suggest that adding treatment modules that target improving distress tolerance and reducing anthropomorphism to standard treatment for HD may lead to further reductions in excessive acquiring.
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Those who excessively acquire have greater saving tendencies.
“those who excessively acquire have greater saving tendencies (Norberg et al., 2018).”
From Why did all the toilet paper disappear? Distinguishing between panic buying and hoarding during COVID-19 (2021) · cites this paper as Norberg et al., 2018
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“…be particularly difficult for individuals with HD. Growing evidence suggest that individuals with HD experience negative emotions intensely and have difficulty tolerating these emotions (Crone and Norberg, 2018; Grisham et al., 2018; Norberg et al., 2020; Shaw et al., 2015; Timpano et al., 2014).”
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- Authors
- Norberg, M. M., Crone, C., Kwok, C., & Grisham, J. R.
- Affiliations
- Macquarie University (AU)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Norberg, Melissa M.
- Venue
- Journal of Behavioral Addictions
- Publisher
- Akademiai Kiado Zrt.
- Published
- 2018-02-14
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 171-180
- ISSN
- 2062-5871 (ISSN-L)
- 2063-5303
- PMC
- PMC6035017
- OpenAlex
- W2786661541
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 9.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Behavioral Addictions (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Repository of the Academy's Library (Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) (acceptedVersion)
- UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- hoarding disorder, attachment anxiety, anthropomorphism, distress intolerance, inanimate objects, dual mediation, attachment styles, treatment goals
- MeSH terms
- Hoarding Disorder, Anxiety, Compulsive Behavior, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Object Attachment, Psychological Tests, Young Adult, Emotional Intelligence, Self Report, Hoarding
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