Attachment (original) (raw)

Attachment security and behaviors have been studied in adult relationships, and attachment-related patterns that differ between individuals are commonly called "attachment styles." There seems to be an association between a person’s attachment characteristics early in life and in adulthood, but the correlations are far from perfect.

Many adults feel secure in their relationships and comfortable depending on others (echoing “secure” attachment in children). Others tend to feel anxious about their connection with close others—or prefer to avoid getting close to them in the first place. Studies of persons with borderline personality disorder, characterized by a longing for intimacy and a hypersensitivity to rejection, have shown a high prevalence and severity of insecure attachment.

Attachment styles in adulthood have labels similar to those used to describe attachment patterns in children:

• Secure
• Anxious-preoccupied (high anxiety, low avoidance)
• Dismissing-avoidant (low anxiety, high avoidance)
• Fearful-avoidant (high anxiety, high avoidance)

However, attachment styles may be better thought of as dimensional, where a person rates as relatively high, low, or somewhere in the middle in their levels of attachment-related anxiety and attachment-related avoidance. Also, a person may not exhibit the same kind of attachment pattern in every close relationship.