How does attachment theory explain the different styles of love?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Attachment theory, the most prominent approach to the study of love, helps one understand how adult relationships develop, what can go wrong in them, and what to do when things do go wrong. In this theory, love is seen as a form of attachment, a close, enduring emotional bond that finds its roots in infancy. Research suggests that romantic love and infant-caregiver attachment have similar emotional dynamics. Based on observations made by Mary Ainsworth and colleagues (1978), Phillip Shaver and colleagues (1988) hypothesized that the styles of attachment developed in childhood-secure, anxious/ambivalent, and avoidant-continue through adulthood.

Adults with secure attachments find it relatively easy to get close to other people. They are comfortable with mutual dependence and have little fear of abandonment. Their love experiences are generally happy, friendly, and trusting.

Adults with anxious/ambivalent attachments believe that other people do not get as close as they themselves want. They worry about being abandoned or not being loved. They want to merge completely with another person and feel that it is easy to fall in love. Their love experiences are often obsessive and marked by desire for union, high degrees of sexual attraction, and jealousy.

Adults with avoidant attachments feel discomfort in being close to other people; they are distrustful and fearful of being dependent. Avoidant lovers fear intimacy and experience emotional highs and lows and jealousy. They believe that romance seldom lasts.