Hazan and Shaver have identified three adult attachment styles corresponding to the infant-mother attachment patterns observed by Ainsworth and associates in the first year of life: secure, avoidant, and anxious-ambivalent. These three styles are related to a wide variety of close relationship processes and outcomes. To date, however; little research has focused on relations between attachment styles and major personality constructs. Such re-search can clarify, the nature of attachment styles and ensure that they are not simply redundant with existing constructs. The present research examined associations between attachment measures, relationship quality and outcome measures, and the 'Big Five"personality traits assessed by the NEO Personality Inventory. Attachment styles were related in theoretically predictable ways to the Big Five dimensions and especially to some of their 'facet' subscales but were not simply redundant with them. The NEO scales were generally not as powerful as the attachment style measures in predicting romantic relationship outcomes, probably because of the greater specificity of the attachment measures.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ainsworth, M. S. , Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2.
Bartholomew, K. , & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 226-244.
3.
Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books.
4.
Brennan, K. A. , & Shaver, P. R. (1990). Dimensions of adult attachment and the dynamics of romantic relationships. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo.
5.
Brennan, K. A. , Shaver, P. R., & Tobey, A. E. (1991). Attachment styles, gender, and parental problem drinking. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 8, 451-466.
6.
Bretherton, I. (1985). Attachment theory: Retrospect and prospect. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1-2, Serial No. 209), 147-166.
7.
Bretherton, I. (1990). Open communication and internal working models: Their role in the development of attachment relationships. In R. A. Thompson (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation Vol. 36. Socio emotional development (pp. 57-113). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
8.
Collins, N. L. , & Read, S. J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 644-663.
9.
Costa, P. T., Jr. , & McCrae, R. R. (1985). The NEO Personality Inventory. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
10.
Davis, K. E. , & Kirkpatrick, L. A. (in press). Attachment style, gender, and relationship stability: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
11.
Davis, K. E. , Levy, M. B., & O'Hearn, R. E. (in press). Stalking the elusive love style: Attachment styles, love styles, and the prediction of relationship outcomes. In R. Gilmour (Ed.), Theoretical frameworks for personal relationships. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
12.
Davis, K. E. , & Todd, M. J. (1982). Friendship and love relationships. In K. E. Davis & T. O. Mitchell (Eds.), Advances in descriptive psychology (Vol. 2). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
13.
Digman, J. M. (1990). Personality structure: Emergence of the five- factor model. Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 417-440.
14.
Dozier, M. , & Kobak, R. R. (in press). Psychophysiology and adolescent attachment interviews: Converging evidence for repressing strategies. Child Development.
15.
Feeney, J. , & Noller, P. (1990). Attachment style as a predictor of adult romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 281-291.
16.
Feeney, J. , & Noller, P. (1991). Attachment style and verbal descriptions of romantic partners. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 8, 187-215.
17.
Hazan, C. , & Shaver, P. R. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524.
18.
Hazan, C. , & Shaver, P. R. (1990). Love and work: An attachment-theoretical perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 270-280.
19.
John, O. P. (1990). The "Big Five" factor taxonomy: Dimensions of personality in the natural language and in questionnaires. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality: theory and research (pp. 66-100). New York: Guilford.
20.
Levy, M. B. , & Davis, K. E. (1988). Lovestyles and attachment styles compared: Their relations to each other and to various relationship characteristics. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 5, 439-471.
21.
Main, M. , & Goldwyn, R. (in press). Interview-based adult attachment classification: Related to infant-mother and infant-father attachment. Developmental Psychology.
22.
McCrae, R. R. (1989). Why I advocate the five-factor model: Joint factor analyses of the NEO-PI with other instruments. In D. M. Buss & N. Cantor (Eds.), Personality psychology: Recent trends and emerging directions (pp. 237-245). New York: Springer-Verlag.
23.
McCrae, R. R. , & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1985). Comparison of EPI and psychoticism scales with measures of the five-factor model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 587-597.
24.
McCrae, R. R. , & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1989a). Reinterpreting the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator from the perspective of the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Personality, 57, 17-40.
25.
McCrae, R. R. , & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1989b). The structure of interpersonal traits: Wiggins's circumplex and the five-factor model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 586-595.
26.
McCrae, R. R. , & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1990). Personality in adulthood. New York: Guilford.
27.
McCrae, R. R. , Costa, P. T., Jr., & Busch, C. M. (1986). Evaluating comprehensiveness in personality systems: The California Q-Set and the five-factor model. Journal of Personality, 54, 430-446.
28.
Mikulincer, M. , Florian, V., & Tolmacz, R. (1990). Attachment styles and fear of personal death: A case study of affect regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 273-280.
29.
Paterson, R. J. , & Moran, G. (1988). Attachment theory, personality development, and psychotherapy. Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 611-636.
30.
Shaver, P. R. , Hazan, C., & Bradshaw, D. (1988). Love as attachment The integration of three behavioral systems. In R. J. Sternberg & M. L. Barnes (Eds.), The psychology of love (pp. 68-99). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
31.
Simpson, J. A. (1990). Influence of attachment styles on romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 971-980.
32.
Sroufe, L. A. , & Waters, E. (1977). Heart rate as a convergent measure in clinical and developmental research. Merrill Palmer Quarter4y, 23, 3-27.
