Adult Attachment Styles

The three prototypes explored are avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, and secure attachments which describes how partners will behave in close relationships and how caring and supportive each individual is within their relationship. Avoidant attached individuals are withdrawn from relationships and untrustworthy of others. Anxious-Ambivalent individuals worry often about their partner’s needs being fulfilled as well as theirs and analyze if they’re moving too fast in the relationship when compared to their partner. Secured individuals are completely trustworthy of their partner and confident in their feelings and

Hazan and Shaver (1987) aimed to investigate whether they could classify the responders’ love relationships as secure, ambivalent, and avoidant, whether there was a correlation between the formed attachment pattern from childhood and attachment pattern during the love relationships, and whether there was a correlation between the distribution of childhood attachment patterns and adult love relationships’ attachment patterns.

The gender differences appeared quite uniformly and consistently, using the four-category model and related measures. Previous studies regarding the difference of attachment style between men and women found large difference in fearful and dismissing categories, where men are more dismissing and women are more fearful than the opposite gender. Women are also found classifying themselves as ‘secure’. In summary, men are found to have a dismissing attachment style, while women have a preoccupied attachment. Moreover, the secure attachment style is most common in both men and women (Männikkö, 2001). Women are found to have more secure, more anxious, and less avoidant attachment style than men. The individuals with secure attachment are more likely to be female, better educated, married, older, and better off financially than other individuals (Mickelson, Kessler & Shaver, 1997). In addition, it is found that most of the women in relationships have a secure attachment style, and least have a dismissive attachment style (Skentelbery & Fowler, 2016).

The attachment style that an individual exhibits as an infant can affect their adult romantic relationships. An attachment pattern is established in early childhood attachments and continues to function as a working model for relationships in adulthood. This model of attachment influences how each of us reacts to our needs and how we go about getting them met. The ability to recognize one 's attachment can help someone to understand their strengths and vulnerabilities in a relationship.

Individual attachment style and its effects on adult romantic relationships were examined. The hypothesis of this literature review was that insecure attachment style would negatively affect the overall dynamic of adult romantic relationships while secure attachment would promote positive and healthy romantic relationships. Empirical studies looking at attachment style and relationship issues such as one’s views of self and others, communication, sexual intimacy, childhood family dynamic and God were evaluated. Reviews of studies were in line with the hypothesis indicating that insecure attachment does negatively affect the overall dynamic of romantic

The attachment theory of Bowlby (1980) helps to explain human bonding, conceptualize attachment, and proximity seeking. According to Lee and Hankin (2009) comfort received from caregiver reassure a child that at the time of distress caregiver will be with them. Furthermore, Lee and Hankin (2009) explains that the attachment within infant-caregiver is regarded as a basis for future relation dynamics of a child. Child, who is having anxious attachment are having difficulty to take caregiver as a secure person and they are characterized as anxious person (Lee & Hankin, 2009). Hamilton (2000) explained about a 12-year longitudinal study that found infant attachment style helps to predict attachment style in adolescence. In addition, a meta-analysis

Brennan, Kelly A., Clark, Catherine L., & Shaver, Phillip, R. (1998). Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrated overview. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (46-76). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

In Derek’s parent attachment, he is highly anxious and uncertain causing him to have considerable amounts of turmoil upon separation. Based on Gouveia, Schulz, & Costa’s (2016) research, preoccupied attachment is portrayed by a positive perspective of others and a negative view of the self. Derek is most likely reluctant to become close to a significant other due to his fear of not being loved by his partner and a fear of losing them. Furthermore, Favez, Tissot, Ghisletta, Golay, & Notari (2016) discuss that highly anxious attachment is a repercussion due to unpredictable responses from the environment, leading to view themselves as unworthy and view others as adept and capable. In relation to Derek’s adult romantic attachment, he would have a lower sense of self-esteem and a higher dependency on his significant other. Additionally, Favez et al. (2016) describe anxious attachments to have a negative correlation with sexual satisfaction and self-esteem. Therefore, Derek’s adult romantic attachment may be not be completely satisfactory emotionally and

Attachment theory was originally proposed by Bowlby (1969) as an explanation of interpersonal relationships, with particular focus in his work on the parent-child relationships which are formed in early childhood. He noted that this was an evolutionary need within us as humans to form close attachments to improve our rate of survival (Bowlby, 1969). He later also theorized that these attachment styles would persist throughout life into adulthood (Bowlby, 1988). Further work on attachment theory by Bartholomew & Horowitz (1991) expanded on attachment styles and looked at the continuation of attachment style into adulthood. Using interviews with participants and the participants close friends they found evidence for four types of adult attachment styles: Secure, Preoccupied, Dismissing and Fearful (Bartholomew & Horowitz 1991). Further support for adult attachments styles is from Mikulincer & Shaver (2004) showing that attachments styles persist from childhood into adulthood demonstrating bowlby 's later hypothesis

Three predominant styles of attachment, secure, insecure-anxious and insecure-avoidant reflect expectations about the reliability and availability of attachment figures (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Individuals who portray secure attachment styles tend to value relationships that provide trust, comfort, and availability. In contrast, individuals with insecure-avoidant or insecure-anxious styles of attachment have difficulty recognizing, acknowledging, and/or valuing secure-based relationships. Avoidant individuals experience discomfort when becoming close with others. In contrast, insecure-anxious individuals report relationships as a threat,

This study will examine the ways that adults construct their own attachment experiences and relationships along and how others influence these attachments and their development. The chosen method for data collection was interviews as they provide full and detailed data for thematic analysis. Other researchers studying within the social constructionist perspective with a main focus on attachment found that attachment relationships are a central part of our lives, which can stem from childhood experiences through to later adult life. There is also some evidence to suggest environment influences an individual. Thematic analysis

Ambivalent individuals, on the other hand, desire closeness in relationships, but fear separation. Consequently, they may hold on too tightly to relationships, or they may form addictions rather than intimate relationships. Having a generally negative view of self and a positive view of others (Clinton & Sibcy, 2002, p. 24), they, as Berger (2014) described, “may be anxious, fearful, clingy or depressed” (p. 191).

We followed Dillman’s Principles in order to make the survey as clear, concise, and simple as possible. First, we determine the research objectivity; people who developed negative attachments are more likely to be affected in their romantic relationships, such as, unstable relationships and feelings of distrust towards their romantic partners. We then construct a series of questions related to the objectivity of the research to identify how negative attachments affects romantic relationships, for example “My desire to be very close sometimes scares people away,” and “I am nervous when partners get too close to me.” We ask questions separately, avoiding two questions on the same sentence, and we chose words that are easy to understand. We chose items that are coded based on the attachment styles and some that are reverse coded to get as much a

In the world of psychology, we often associate the words “secure attachment” with early psychological studies examining children’s attachment to their caregivers. However, more recent research by Konrath, Chopik, Hsing, & O’Brien (2014) focuses instead on the various types of attachments that adult individuals form with others and how these attachments may be changing across generations. In this study, Konrath et al. (2014) found an increase in the proportion of insecure attachment styles, particularly the dismissive attachment style. This study defined these attachment styles according to how a person views oneself and others. In secure attachment styles, people hold positive views both of themselves and others. In dismissive attachment, the self is viewed favourably while others are viewed in a negative fashion (Konrath et al., 2014). The increase in dismissive attachment therefore corresponds to a decrease in a positive view of others across time. These findings by Konrath et al. (2014) may have implications going forward as our society faces the possibility of increased detachment and a weakening of the social bonds that define humanity as a whole.

The preoccupied attachment style is characterized by low fear of closeness and high fear of abandonment. Individuals classified as preoccupied have a negative model of themselves. Because preoccupies see themselves as unworthy of love and unsupportive, they tend to “strive for self-acceptance by gaining the acceptance of valued others” (Bartholomew, 227) and would do everything to keep people in their life; Preoccupied individuals try to avoid any kind of conflict in order to make themselves loveable and others happy. Despite the fact that preoccupies often see others as trustworthy and available, they also feel that others do not care about them as much as they care about others.