ABSTRACT
Some individuals have chronic doubts about the extent to which they are valued by their relationship partners, and these insecurities have been shown to have a substantial impact on the functioning of interpersonal relationships. Individual differences in relationship insecurity are often indexed by attachment anxiety, which is characterized by fears of abandonment by close others (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998; Hazan & Shaver, 1987); rejection sensitivity (Downey & Feldman, 1996), which is characterized by anxious expectations for rejection; and low self-esteem (Murray, Holmes, & Griffin, 2000), or global negative or neutral evaluations of the self. Although these constructs emphasize different facets of chronic insecurity, they seem to share a common core because they all tap chronic doubts about whether one is accepted and valued by others. Moreover, as I describe later, they tend to have similar effects on cognition, motivation, and behavior in interpersonal relationships. Hence, in the current chapter, I will use the term “chronic insecurity” to refer to these various constructs.
