Psychology
2011. Vol.2, No.7, 665-668
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. DOI:10.4236/psych.2011.27101
The Analysis of Attachment Styles through Interpersonal
Circumplex Description
Wen Xue, Shouying Zhao
School of Educational, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China.
Email: whitesherry@163.com
Received May 18th, 2011; revised July 23rd, 2011; accepted September 9th, 2011.
The study explored how the dyads with different attachment styles behave towards Leary’s circumplex in coop-
erative and competitive tasks. 100 strangers as a sample were surveyed through two experiments on computer,
by using RBQ (Riverside Behav ioral Q-sort) to examine thei r interpersonal traits through rated by experimente rs.
Relation Questionnaire (RQ) and ECR were also used to measure their attachment styles. There are three con-
clusions based on the results of this study that: 1) Individuals of different attachment styles in interpersonal in-
teraction had shown different trend of interpersonal styles; 2) Individuals of different attachment styles take up
different area in interpersonal circumplex, which proves that it is continuous not discrete of interpersonal at-
tachment style; 3) the dyads in different sex of different attachment types showed different satisfaction in these
two tasks.
Keywords: Interpersonal Circumplex, Attachment Style, Interpersonal Relationship, Dyads
Introduction
It was mentioned in Bowlby and Ainsworth’s attachment
theory that patterns of childhood attachment have examined in
the context of adult’s experience of emotion, especially in their
relationships. This extension is consistent with Bowlby’s asser-
tion that the attachment mechanism is an impact “from the cra-
dle to the grave”. Act ual ly , the continuity of infant’s attachment
style has further effect on individual’s manifestation towards
their relationships or association (such as marriage, romantic
relation, the companionship). Therefore, most attachment re-
searches have been done by the domestic and international
researchers, combined with various composition of character
about cognition, personality or trait. So further exploring will
be continued for the correlation of this individually emotional
link and individual mental state shape, interpersonal behavior,
and social cognition and support, happiness, etc.
With the gradually in-depth social science researches on
adult interpersonal attachment, studies for attachment methods
and means of measurement have become more diversified. In
China, the main measurement of interpersonal attachment is in
two ways. In the first way, individual’s attachment style was
measured to determine the differences between individuals with
different attachment styles; and the Ladder is the determination
of the one’s score on attachment dimensi ons. Individuals’ scores
on different dimension will be used to determine the extent of
their attachment avoidance and anxiety and so on. Question-
naires are highly applied in researches concerning both the
degree in dimension structure and attachment styles. Which is
used the most is the type of Adult Attachment Styles Question-
naire.
Early questionnaire survey towards adult attachment was fo-
cused on the discrete types (Hazan & Shaver, 1987), which was
developed by Ainsworth’s three infant attachment types. Since
then, a large number of adult attachment scales were emerging,
greatly promoting the research progress in this field. According
to Bowlby’s theory, the individual was referred to the self-
model and other-model, because individual’s attachment style
depends on their own positive or negative assessment about
themselves and their supporters (especially parents). So the
adult attachment styles based on the integration of these two
models, can be divided in four-categorical scheme, such as
secure, ambivalent, fearful and dismissing. Therefore, the sub-
sequent establishment of attachment scale towards two dimen-
sions—self-model and other-model, became the core content
discussed by the researchers. The individual with secure at-
tachment of cherish both the positive self-evaluation and
other-evaluation, and they want others to response their own
emotional needs; compared with that, ambivalent attachment
style owes negative self-model, whereas of positive other-model;
The individuals of dismissing attachment style possess positive
self-model, but they believe that others are not worth trusting;
The fearful attachment’s self-model and the other-model were
both negative. Based on this theoretical analysis, Bartholomew
and Horowitz developed a self-report scale—Relationship Ques-
tionnaire.
Since then, based on the RQ, Brennan developed a standard
adult intimate relationships Attachment Scale—Closed Relation
Experience scale (ECR), a scale of 36 questions, in which, at-
tachment anxiety and attachment avoidance as its the two di-
mensions composition. Currently, Attachment investigation
would be confirmed by of the combination of these two item
polls or they may use the ECR to determine the subjects’ style
while the RQ as the crit er i on for test.
Question
However, recent research suggests that rather than a three-or
four-categorical, a dimensional, more comprehensive model
may better represent adult attachment (Crowell, Fraley, &
Shaver 1999). Hazan and Shaver (1987) found that “Secure
attachment tend to describe their parents friendly and warm,
whereas Anxiety-Ambivalent attachment of the individuals
described their families aggressive, and avoidant person tend to
report their par ents cold and rejectin g”. Therefore, it is no doubt
the measurement method based on interpersonal relationship