The hurtful actions of others can trigger a wide range of negative emotions.

To date, two main theories have been proposed to explain the defining characteristics of painful experiences. According to proponents of the social adequacy perspective, distress arises when the victim concludes that the offender places less importance on the connection than the victim does. According to attachment theorists, distressing experiences undermine the sense of safety that is the foundation of close relationships. This thesis investigates the contributions of various viewpoints to our knowledge of hurt sentiments using three investigations with community samples of adult women (N = 990). Both Studies 1 and 2 rely on correlational self-report methods (n = 475 and n = 380), while Study 3 is an experiment (n = 135). We test four main hypotheses about the relationship between social inadequacy and attachment to hurt: (1) that predictors of hurt feelings have interactive effects on hurt intensity within the social adequacy and attachment perspectives; (2) that attachment predictors explain hurt intensity more powerfully than social adequacy predictors; (3) that felt security and degree of attachment to the perpetrator are important predictors of hurt intensity; and (4) that social adequacy and attachment perspectives on hurt predict ongoing psychological adjustment.