Relationship Between General and Context-Specific Attachment Orientations in a Turkish Sample

Abstract

The authors explored the relationship between general and context-specific attachment orientations involving family, peer, and romantic contexts. Participants were 110 Turkish university students (50 men, 60 women). The authors used the Turkish form of K. Bartholomew and L. M. Horowitz's (1991) Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) to measure participants' general and specific attachment orientations. Using 5-point Likert-type scales, participants specified the degree to which each of the 4 descriptions of RQ (i.e., of secure, preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful orientations) represented (a) how they generally felt in close relationships; and then how they felt in their (b) family relationships, (c) romantic relationships, and (d) peer relationships. The present results indicated that participants who were generally high rather than low on a particular attachment orientation tended to be so across the 3 contexts, thereby supporting the trait-like conceptualization of attachment styles. However, the present results also supported conceptualization of attachment orientations as specific context-related tendencies because regardless of their general orientations, participants reported feeling relatively more secure in some relationships (e.g., family) than in others (e.g., romantic). The authors discussed the present results as supporting (a) the coexistence of both general and specific attachment orientations in the cognitive system and (b) the cross-cultural validity of attachment orientations.