Social rank and attachment in people with a bipolar disorder

This paper explores the relationship between personal evaluations of attachment and personal evaluations of social rank, in relationship to mood variation in bipolar disorder. Forty patients with diagnosed bipolar affective disorder, who were regarded as ‘relatively stable’ by their psychiatrist, were given a set of self‐report questionnaires, measuring attachment style, social comparison, submissive behaviour and various aspects of mood. Mood variation within this group was highly linked to variation in social rank evaluations. In particular, elevated mood was associated with feeling superior, while depression was associated with feeling inferior. Attachment also varied with mood but appeared to be less related to mood in this group. This study suggests that variation in social rank evaluations may be significantly associated with mood variation in patients with a bipolar disorder.