Development of Attachment in Romantic Relationship of Young Adults with Different Love Styles

Victor Karandashev,Vanessa Wolters,Candace Edwards,Megan Benton

doi:10.5964/ijpr.v6i1.87

Abstract

This study reconstructed the participants’ retrospective experience of how attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety developed during the course of romantic relationships in young adults. Participants (290 undergraduate students) recalled their stories of love relationships that occurred approximately between the ages of 15and19. The feelings of avoidance and anxiety, which were experienced as a result of the events that occurred throughout the relationships, were analyzed. The general dynamics of these dimensions as well as the patterns that are typical for different love styles were discovered. The application of methodology to analysis of individual change in romantic attachment during relationship is demonstrated.

Highlights

This study reconstructed the participants’ retrospective experience of how attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety developed during the course of romantic relationships in young adults
This study explored the development of attachment feelings in romantic relationships of young adults
Secure attachment was considered as the combination of low avoidance and low anxiety; preoccupied was comprised of low avoidance and high anxiety; fearful avoidant was comprised of high avoidance and high anxiety; and dismissing-avoidant was comprised of low anxiety and high avoidance (Shaver & Fraley, n.d.)

Summary

Introduction

This study reconstructed the participants’ retrospective experience of how attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety developed during the course of romantic relationships in young adults. Romantic partners are not expected to emerge as attachment figures or recipients of caretaking until they begin to develop stable relationships—exclusive, longer-term relationships These systems may not fully emerge in romantic relationships until the appearance of committed relationships; such relationships typically do not appear until early adulthood or later. Secure attachment was considered as the combination of low avoidance and low anxiety; preoccupied was comprised of low avoidance and high anxiety; fearful avoidant was comprised of high avoidance and high anxiety; and dismissing-avoidant was comprised of low anxiety and high avoidance (Shaver & Fraley, n.d.) Such a dimensional approach gave more flexibility in research of diversity of attachment since a person (especially in the case of medium scores) could not always be classified into one of the four types of attachment. We assumed that love styles and relationship events had effect on avoidance and anxiety in love relations

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Conclusion