Social Avoidance and its Relation to Bartholomew's Adult Attachment Typology

Abstract

In her four-fold model of attachment, Bartholomew (1990) distinguished two socially avoidant attachment styles, fearful and dismissing, in terms of self-esteem and social avoidance. Unfortunately, her measure of social avoidance (sociability) cannot discriminate sociability from shyness, an important aspect of social avoidance. The association of shyness and sociability with Bartholomew's attachment-style groups was assessed in a sample of 676 participants. Fearful subjects differentiated themselves from dismissing subjects on ratings of sociability and shyness, suggesting that dismissing subjects' social avoidance is due to low sociability, whereas the fearful subjects' social avoidance is due to shyness. Results are discussed in terms of the maintenance of avoidance attachment styles and of their implications for the study of social avoidance.