Year: 2001
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The methods for defining adult attachment styles, gender differences in attachment styles and the relation of attachment styles to personality characteristics and psychosocial functioning were examined. The study was based on data gathered by means of personality inventories and self-report questionnaires at ages 27, 33, and 36 in the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development. At age 36, attachment styles of 130 women and 141 men were measured with descriptions of the secure, dismissing, fearful, and preoccupied attachment styles in relation to the same and the opposite sex, using a 4-point scale. Attachment styles were defined by using both a classification method and a cluster analysis method. First, the participants were classified according to the single highest or tied-high (about 30%) attachment ratings. Second, the participants were assigned into clusters using a two-stage cluster analysis (hierarchical + K-means) for double standardized (within participants and variables) clustering variables. By this procedure, an identical four-cluster solution was achieved for all participants and also for four subsamples consisting of women or men who assessed attachment in relation to female or male attachment figures. Furthermore, the tied-high classification and the four-cluster solution were associated through explicit rules. The analysis of gender differences showed that women were more preoccupied and men were more dismissing but only in relation to male attachment figures. In contrast, the secure attachment style was typical of both women and men in relation to female attachment figures. A tendency to describe attachment in more negative terms in relation to one's opposite sex than in relation to one's same sex was also discovered. The results also showed that a tendency to describe one's attachment style by using tied-high scores was related to problems in psychosocial functioning (e.g., low self-esteem, depression, health and alcohol problems), and to a more vulnerable and less adaptive personality, characterized with neurotic and psychotic features, anxiety, and feelings of detachment. In the attachment style clusters, these features characterized the Fearful, whereas the Secure had good psychosocial functioning, an extraverted and sociable personality, and low vulnerability. The attachment dimensions were related to some aspects of neuroticism and extraversion. Self-consciousness was related to the self-dimension, whereas either warmth or positive emotions were related to the other-dimension, depending on the level of self-consciousness. The relation between attachment and personality manifested considerable stability from age 27 to age 36. The results of this study suggest that measurement issues and gender differences should be paid more attention when measuring and defining attachment styles.
Author: Kaisa Männikkö
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2269966435