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Attachment Style and Verbal Descriptions of Romantic Partners

University of Queensland

Patricia Noller

University of Queensland

The present study investigated attachment style differences in subjects' reports of their romantic partners. The sample consisted of seventy-four undergraduates (thirty-seven males and thirty-seven females) who had been in a dating relationship for at least 1 month. Subjects supplied a verbal description of their current dating partner and later completed the single-item measure of attachment style developed by Hazan & Shaver (1987). The verbal reports were tape-recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were coded for spontaneous references to attachment related issues, and content scales were also developed to tap idealization, a number of aspects of relationship quality and attitudes towards the partner's social network (family and friends). The content of subjects' references to attachment-related issues was strongly related to their self-reported attachment style and was consistent with the essential characteristics of the three styles. The content scales revealed attachment style effects for scales measuring idealization, relationship quality and attitudes to partner's social network. Secure subjects showed intermediate levels of idealization and relatively favourable attitudes to the partner's family and made more references to positive relationship characteristics. The pattern of scores of avoidant subjects indicated a generally low level of emotional intensity, while the anxious/ ambivalent group obtained high scores on idealization. The results support questionnaire studies of attachment, in showing the importance of attachment-related issues to the experience of romantic love.

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 8, No. 2, 187-215 (1991)
DOI: 10.1177/0265407591082003


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