Poor Interpersonal Relationships

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.

Those with insecure attachments tend to have lower relationship satisfaction compared to those who are securely attached. Those who have a secure attachment style provide a caregiving role, their behaviors are responsive and sensitive, non-controlling and show interest during interactions. Secures are affectionate with touch, enjoy physical contact (intimate & sexual) and are willing to ask for support. Individuals with an insecure anxious attachment are more self-focused and always looking for approval and support from their partner regardless of low and high stress situations. Anxious attachment individuals are also over caring and hyper vigilant. Lastly, individuals with an avoidant attachment value independence and have low levels of self-disclosure. Avoidant individuals are less likely to use touch to express affection and are uncomfortable with intimate sexual contact. In short, being aware of your attachment style and your partners can shed light on marital conflict and possible solutions and corrective behaviors to better marital

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.

They also show high levels of stress during separation and remain distressed even after the reunion. Although these are the two main insecure attachment categories, current research suggests that there are countless forms of insecure attachment patterns besides the ones Ainsworth highlighted in her research (Barnett & Vondra, 1999).

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

Relationship satisfaction is an important part of romantic relationships. A lack of satisfaction can lead to consequences in other areas of life and eventually, the destruction of the relationship. For example, job performance is heavily influenced by romantic relationship satisfaction. In a study by Greenhaus and Beutell (1985), they argued that poor satisfaction leads to poor job performance and vice versa. They stated this was to because these two spheres are “interdependent.” Satisfaction can also influence quality of health. Conflict in a marital relationship is associated with higher heart rates and blood pressure (Broadwell & Light, 1999; Ewart, Taylor, Kaemer & Agras, 1991; Flor, Breitenstein, Birbaumer & Furst 1995; Frankish & Linden, 1996; Kiecolt-Glaser, 1993; Mayne, O’Leary, McCrady, Contrada & Labouvie, 1997; Morell & Apple, 1990; Shwartz, Slater & Birchler, 1994; Thomsen & Gilbert, 1998). It is also strongly associated with depression and depressed syndromes (Beach, Fincham & Katz, 1998; Fincham & Beach, 1999). This relationship between marital conflict and depression seems to be bidirectional meaning depression is not only a result of conflict but also is caused by the conflict (Beach, et. al., 1998; Fincham & Beach, 1999). Because a lack of relationship satisfaction can negatively affect so many important areas of life, it is important to understand what influences the level of satisfaction held in romantic relationships.

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

Like Fresno et al., Meyer et al. (2017) found a direct relationship between CSA and attachment style—this time following survivors into adulthood. Meyer et al. were interested in the persistent complications of CSA into adulthood, including adult attachment styles. They hypothesized that CSA directly leads to insecure attachment, especially avoidant and anxious attachment, which in return results in maladaptive emotion regulation and inappropriate behaviors. They also hypothesized that women who experienced CSA would be closely associated with anxious attachment and CSA men would be associated with avoidant attachment. Meyer et al. explored this by administering an online survey advertised to local college campuses, community organizations, mental health counseling groups, and local 12-step sexual addiction treatment groups. The survey measured attachment style outcome using the Close Relationships Scale. Out of 751 participants, 129 or 16% of participants reported experiencing CSA (32 males and 97 females). The results showed that those with CSA in their history were more likely to have an anxious adult attachment, and surprisingly found no relationship for avoidant attachment. This is a direct relationship between CSA history and insecure adult attachment, and was found to not be mediated by gender. There were no gender differences as both men and women were likely to

Attachment styles influence relational patterns between a married couple and their children. These attachment relational patterns known as anxious, avoidant, and secure base styles are a product of the interactions experienced in early childhood with their caregivers. It affects people’s intercommunication with others all through their life span. Individuals’ attachment style involves a systematic pattern of relational assumptions, emotions, and behavior that develop from the subjective constructs definitive of attachment experiences throughout their lives. Negative relational patterns increase the likelihood of marital violence in the home. When experiencing stress related life issues, conflicts may arise due to substandard communication skills leading to physical violence, aggressiveness, resulting in harsh spousal disputes. A positive upswing in marital and family harmony occurs when healthy communication skills develop along with secure based attachment characteristics, such as, humility, gratitude, and forgiveness of self and others. These characteristics provide coping mechanisms that establish a positive self-identity and healthy social interaction with others. As the anxious and avoidant relational styles exercise these positive characteristics, in time, they develop a positive view of self and others while learning to work through life stressors, which benefit the marriage and family.

The authors found significant differences in emotion language use between the attachment classification groups. The findings provided cross-method validation of distinct patterns of emotion regulation for varying attachment styles. Despite clinical applications suggested by the authors, the pattern of language use can also be applied to a variety of contexts. From organizations to dating websites, analyzing pattern of language use can be very beneficial in maintaining good relationship with clients, employees, employers and significant

Fraley (2002) completed a meta analysis of studies concerning attachment in order to investigate the level of attachment pattern’s continuity throughout life. The study indicated that there was a certain stability of the attachment pattern, and that the stability is independent of time. Even though it is theorized that a secure pattern will be likely to stay unchanged, it is still indicated that experiences such as bad relationships will be able to change the attachment pattern (Fraley,

When conflict occurs within a partnership there is oftentimes a withdrawal from intimacy within the relationship before the conflict is resolved and intimacy can occur again. This is known as the intimacy-conflict cycle. In Little Miss Sunshine the parents, Richard and Sheryl, tend to manage their dissatisfactions with cyclic alternation responses, which are instances when one of the partners voices a complaint that prompts the other’s response in order to resolve their conflict (Galvin, et al., 219). This is seen very

An individual’s attachment style is conceived as a personality trait which is stable across the individual’s life span. Attachment is seen as a categorical model where individuals are either securely, avoidant or anxiously attached to others. Several studies have indicated how individuals treat attachment-related thoughts is related to their attachment style and governs how they cope with and express the loss of a loved one. When compared with secure and anxious attached adults, avoidant attachment style adults are less concerned with attachment to others. Anxious attachment style adults are worried about loss and will be hyper vigilant to relationship distress.

More common behavior in avoidant men rather than women is the ability to reduce emotions so that anger or hostility is not present in conflict. This is because they are emotionally non-supportive. With anger and hostility there is a sense of involvement which needs support. This is where ambivalent types are shown. When dealing with a major problem they tend to show much more emotion and passion; greater anger, stress, and anxiety. After the conflict they see their relationship and partner less positive in terms of commitment, openness with each other, and supportiveness. (Simpson et al., 1996)

According to attachment theory, early experiences with caregivers shape how individuals relate interpersonally and how they cope using emotion regulation strategies. These styles are activated in adulthood during times of threat (Burnette, Green, Worthington, & Bradfield, 2009). An insecure attachment style results from having high levels of either attachment anxiety or attachment avoidance, and is related to psychopathologies and difficulties in interpersonal relationships (Levi-Belz, Gvion, Horesh, & Apter, 2013; Stroebe, Schut, & Stroebe, 2006). Both co-rumination and attachment style are prevalent during distressing times of our lives and likely interact in the process. Given insecure attachments style’s maladaptive associations with emotional coping and well-being it may be that co-rumination will have a worse outcomes for those who are unable to hold secure attachments in relationship. I propose that an insecure attachment style moderates the outcomes of co-rumination. An insecure attachment style will magnify the increased internalizing symptoms and hindering advancement relationship quality that is said to culminate from co-rumination (see Figure 1). This paper will first review the construct of co-rumination, its components and its relation to the outcomes of internalizing symptoms and relationship quality. Next, I will cover insecure anxious attachment, insecure avoidant attachment, and how these relate to the variables of