Preview

Romantic Attachment Styles

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2295 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Romantic Attachment Styles
Romantic Attachment Styles: 1

Romantic Attachment Styles: Secure, Avoidant, Anxious, Ambivalent
Brittany Hail
Argosy University

Romantic Attachment Styles: 2

Humans have a general need to belong and a fundamental desire to form strong and stable relationships. As we develop, it is necessary for us to experience various levels of positive attachments and establish a variety of types of bonds. Beginning very early on, we are exposed to the very important relationship between the caregiver(s) and the child, which serves the purpose of cultivating security and ensuring survival (Kenrick, Neuberg, & Cialdini, 2007, chp 8). These initial relationships should nurture and comfort us, to ensure that we develop trust and a secure attachment style. Throughout our life, it is necessary that we develop a few secure and emotionally powerful close friendships and romantic relationships. “A significant person factor that seems to impact [our friendships and] romantic relationships is the attachment style. Empirical research supports the notion that the way people relate to others in a romantic sense depends on the early socialization experiences, particularly attachment to their mothers. These attachment styles are outlined as secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent. [A] secure attachment style [means that a person] finds it relatively easy to get close to others and [is] comfortable depending on [others] and having [others] depend on [them]. [They] do not often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting close to [them]. [An] avoidant attachment style [means that a person is] somewhat uncomfortable being close to others. [They] find it difficult to trust [others] completely and difficult to allow [themselves] to depend on [others].



References: Argosy University. (2012). Social Psychology. Retrieved from http://myeclassonline.com Farley, R. Chris. (2010). A Brief Overview of Adult Attachment Theory and Research. University of Illinois. Retrieved from http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~rcfraley/attachment.htm Godbole, Medha. (2011). Avoidant Attachment Style. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/avoidant-attachment-style.html Kenrick, D. T., Neuberg, S. L., & Cialdini, R. B. (2007). Social psychology: Goals in interaction (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Retrieved from http://digitalbookshelf.argosy.edu/#/books/0558220088/pages/48405201

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    If attachment is a biological innate process, as Bowlby’s theory suggests, then secure attachment should be the best form for all humans regardless of variations in culture. However, there is much research against this statement, making us question whether attachment is or is not a biological innate process at all.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    PSYCH 600 Attachment Style

    • 1155 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Modern attachment theory, founded by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, studied the relationship between children and their caregivers. Attachment theory was applied to adult romantic relationships in the late 1980’s by Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver. They found interactions between adult romantic partners and interactions between children and their caregivers shared similarities. There are four main attachment styles identified in both adults and children. The adult styles are secure, anxious-preoccupied, dismissive-avoidant, and fearful-avoidant. The children styles are secure, anxious-ambivalent, anxious-avoidant, and disorganized. The core principles of attachment theory apply to both types of relationships.…

    • 1155 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: Kenrick, D.T., Neuberg, S.L., and Cialdini, R. B. Social Psychology: Goals in Interaction, 4th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions, 2006.…

    • 905 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bowlby Attachment Theory

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the 1980s, Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver were able to garner a lot of attention, then, when they turned attachment theory on adult relationships. In their studies, they looked at a number of couples, examining the nature of the attachments between them, and then observed how those couples reacted to various stressors and stimuli. In the case of adults, it would seem that a strong attachment is still quite important. For example, in cases where the adults had a weak attachment, there were feelings of inadequacy on the part of both parties. When attachments were too strong, there were issues with co-dependency. The relationships functioned best when both parties managed to balance intimacy with independence. Much as is the case with developing children, the ideal situation seemed to be an attachment that functioned as a secure base from which to reach out and gain experience in the world.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A problem with the attachment model is that the list of attachment behaviors is limited to those that occur with the primary attachment figure. Yet, other attachments are not automatically defined by those same behaviors. People have attachments to other people, but they do not show attachment quite the same way as some theorists might want us to believe. According to Fields (1996), a prudent model of attachment would need to accommodate multiple attachments to a variety of people at different stages of life (as cited in Hong & Park, 2012). In this model, attachment is regarded as a connection that changes among two or more individuals as they become familiar to each other, each offering the other meaning.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Cooley, E. L., Van Buren, A. & Cole, S. P. (2010). Attachment styles, Social skills, and…

    • 1917 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a child seeks physical closeness and comfort from a caregiver they begin to develop a secure relationship with them. Gaining this secure attachment provides a sense of security and sense of self that helps to guide behavioral and emotional reactions that are necessary for one's own mental health. When a caregiver is sensitive and responsive to the emotional and physical needs of a child, it provides a safe and secure environment, achieving this healthy attachment children seek (Hornor, 2008).…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Research Questions

    • 2030 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Guerrero and Bachman conducted a study to determine the relationship between secure/insecure individuals and their attachment styles in romantic relationships. 189 couples participated in this study, they each completed questionnaires and the results were compiled; the results suggest an association between romantic affection and an individuals personal attachment-styles. The attachment theory used in this study is that people think and act towards others in personal relationships based on how they think and feel about themselves. It is suggested that these feelings towards oneself are developed as a baby as a result of the contact with their caregiver. Guerrero and Bachman’s attachment theory suggests that people’s behavior is guided by their perceptions of themselves. Hypothesis 1 for the study is; secure individuals report using more prosocial maintenance than dismissive individuals. Research question 1 states; are there other attachment-style differences in prosocial maintenance behaviors as a function of an individual’s own attachment style? Research question 2 is; are there differences in reported use of prosocial maintenance behaviors based on one’s partner’s attachment style? Hypothesis 2 says; one’s own level of (a) anxiety and (b) avoidance associates negatively with prosocial maintenance. Lastly, research question 3 is; does one’s partner’s level of (a) anxiety or (b) avoidance associate with a person’s reported use of relational maintenance? The degree of relational involvement of the 189 couples that participated was; 78.6% dating, 12.4% engaged, and 21.4% married. The results of the questionnaire stated that the attachment…

    • 2030 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Individual attachments styles can affect the type of love relationships later on in life because one learns behavioral traits as a young child. Robert Sternberg introduced us to his Love Triangle theory in 1988. He explained that the way a person was brought up as a child can affect the way they express themselves as adults. The question remains as to why does this affect one as an adult. If one is taught from right and wrong then why does one express themselves negatively towards others? According to Robert Sternberg’s findings, “as infants we survive only if an adult is willing to meet our basic needs. Early in life we form bonds with our caregivers.” By this he means we learn very early on about how we can depend on others. If our caregivers ignore us and do not help us when we need help one will learn to depend on no one else but themselves. Whereas if a person is taught that they can depend on others to help them they will grow to learn that there are people out there that can help them in situations that they may need help in.…

    • 1255 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Positive Attachment

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It is important to define positive attachment as the ‘trusting relationship’ ( that forms during infancy, usually with the primary caregiver. This secure…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psychologist have proposed a theory that attachments which are formed with primary caregivers during early childhood can have a major influence on future relationship this is called the attachment theory. The development through this theory are in three major types of attachment styles have been identified as secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent. There are two fundamental ways that adult attachment styles can be differ in terms of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. Attachment anxiety is a characterized with negative self-sacrificing with a concern that others will not respond one’s desire for intimacy, fear of rejection and abandonment. Attachment avoidance is characterized with negative imagine of others for excessive needs…

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Mikulincer, M., & Florian, V. (1998). The relationship between adult attachment styles and emotional and cognitive reactions to stressful events. Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 143-165). New York: Guilford Press.…

    • 3383 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Attachment Styles

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Although, Shaver founded these attachment styles, they are very similar to Karen Horney’s basic anxiety theory. He describes the secure lovers to be extremely close in relationships. Avoidant lovers feel uncomfortable when they become close to one another and have issues with trust. Lastly Anxious-ambivalent lovers are close to one another but scare away their partners due to insecurity with the relationship. Researchers collected data across a 15-year span and concluded child-parent relationship and adult romantic relationship function correlate. They believe that your attachment style as a child will associate with your attachment style in relationships as an adult. They also found that people with poor relationships with their parents also had poor relationships with each other (conger, shaver, Widaman, & Larsen-Rife, 2011)…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kenrick, D. T., Neuberg, S. L. & Cialdini, R. B. (2007). Social psychology: Goals in interaction…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    childhood experiences

    • 1036 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This is Theory is supported by the study of HAZAN & SHAVER (1987). The experiment consisted of a 'love quiz' questionnaire that was published in a newspaper. The questions were designed to classify and individual as one of Ainsworth's attachment type. The questionnaire also included q's which aimed to assess the pps childhood relationships with their caregivers, and their romantic experiences in their life. Results showed that attachment type that individual had shown as a child was related to how they felt about adult relationships. Showed secure attachment types in…

    • 1036 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays