DESCRIPTION (Applicant's abstract): Attachment research examines the role of internal working models--internalized representations of self and other that develop on the basis of early interactions--in directing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral response patterns. Social cognition research examines the role of cognitive structures in how people interpret, encode, and remember information they encounter in their everyday lives. Whereas the attachment-theoretical approach can inform about the development and role of social schemas in interpersonal behavior, the social cognitive approach can contribute an in-depth understanding of the ways in which these schemas influence social information processing and offer refined methodologies for studying them. The proposed program of research integrates the social cognitive and attachment- theoretical perspectives to advance understanding of the nature and content of working models, and to examine the processes through which they influence cognitive-affective response patterns. More specifically, this research has three aims: (1) to test whether internal working models of attachment constitute chronically accessible constructs (i.e., schemas) that affect the information processing of attachment-relevant stimuli; (2) to examine the effects of two kinds of priming--relational and non-relational--on information processing of individuals who differ in their attachment styles; and (3) to investigate specific cognitive mechanisms that might underlie the hypothesized biases in information processing that are characteristic of each attachment style.