Understanding Attachment Styles and Relationships
Explore how early attachments influence adult relationships through four attachment styles supported by research.
What is this page about?
An explainer of attachment styles, the characteristic patterns people develop for managing closeness, emotional need, and vulnerability in relationships, formed in early childhood and shown to stay reasonably stable. It traces the framework from Bowlby's attachment theory and Ainsworth's Strange Situation (secure, anxious-ambivalent, avoidant) through Main and Solomon's disorganized category and Hazan and Shaver's adult-attachment work, and covers how stable the patterns are, earned security, Emotionally Focused Therapy, attachment at work, and the pitfalls of popularized oversimplification.
What has been corrected on this page?
Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.
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2 corrections applied: Ainsworth's Strange Situation research identified three infant patterns; the preoccupied/dismissive/fearful labels are the adult four-category model (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). | Reconcile table with body text, which states avoidant/dismissive prevalence as approximately 20-25%.
Beforewas extended by Mary Ainsworth's empirical work identifying four main patterns; Dismissive-Avoidant prevalence approximately 15-20%
Afterwas extended by Mary Ainsworth's empirical work identifying three main patterns; Dismissive-Avoidant prevalence approximately 20-25%
Why: Ainsworth's Strange Situation research identified three infant attachment patterns (the fourth, disorganized, was added later by Main and Solomon 1986); the prevalence table was reconciled with the body text's stated 20-25 percent for avoidant/dismissive attachment.
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