Is attachment style relationship-specific? A generalizability study

Abstract

The assumption that adult attachment style is a person-specific characteristic exhibited across different relationships was examined i a generalizability study. College students responded to a brief measure of the 2 fundamental dimensions of adult attachment style self-ratings (Preoccupation and Avoidance) for each of 5 different relationships (mother, father, best friend of the same gender, romantic partner or best friend of the opposite gender, other close person). It was found that, for Avoidance, the PersonxRelationship interaction variance componente was approximately twice as large as that for Person, while the opposite happened for Preoccupation. These results imply the need to consider specific relationship characteristics, and support Bartholomew’s (1990) proposal that avoidance reflects the representation of others (and thus is relationship-specific), while preoccupation reflects representation of self (and thus is person-specific).

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v20i1.380