Adult Attachment Nad Stategic Relational Communication Essay
, Research Paper
Adult Attachment and Strategic Relational
Communication: Love Schemas and Affinity Seeking
Harmonizing to fond regard theory, the emotional bonds that babies form with their health professionals serve as the designs for the manner people view themselves and others and they affect the manner people act in their grownup relationships, ( Bowlby, 1982 ) . John Bowlby was one of the first innovators to progress on the fond regard theory position. He was greeted with opposition and incredulity early on. Now, attachment theory constructs are widely known and accepted in developmental psychological science, ( West and Sheldon-Keller, 1994 ) .
The article I & # 8217 ; m reviewing involves attachment theory, the six love scheme and how they affect big relationships. In this paper, I will be looking at those constructs through 4 subdivisions: the literary reappraisal, the methods subdivision, the consequences of the survey, and the treatment subdivision.
LITERARY REVIEW
The chief thought of this article, Adult Attachment and Strategic Relational Communication: Love Schemas and Affinity Seeking, is that attachment theory begins with attachment manners as an baby. It so begins to play with the thought that attachment theory is based on people & # 8217 ; s positive or negative self-esteem. Peoples who are unafraid are comfy organizing close and intimate relationships because they have positive beliefs about themselves and others. Dismissing and fearful types avoid intimate relationships because they have negative perceptual experiences about themselves and others, ( Bachman & A ; Zakahi, 2000 ) .
This conceptual model is widely used to depict attachment theory and its sub-points. Those with an fond regard theory position believe that the fond regard system is an independent behavioural system, tantamount in map to other drive-behavioral systems such as eating, coupling, and geographic expedition, ( Sperling & A ; Berman, 1994 ) . Harmonizing to West & A ; Sheldon-Keller, most grownups plan their lives on the footing of an awaited hereafter with a particular other in the outlook of happening security in a lasting relationship. This places one of the accents of fond regard theory upon the hunt for security and implies that non all attachment relationships are unafraid. Consistent with this, West & A ; Sheldon-Keller province that grownups seek relational propinquity to a peculiar individual ( merely as kids do ) which, if found, promotes, enhances, and restores security. In general, the childhood beginnings of attachment manners should still be apparent to some extent in grownups, because the influence of parents or health professionals exerts itself in most people & # 8217 ; s lives for many old ages, ( Bowlby, 1980 ) . In add-on to strength and security, the easiness with which an person develops attachment relationships appears to be rather of import in discoursing the correlativity between how people form relationships from the beginning and why they are formed, ( Sperling & A ; Berman ) .
Past research by Hatfield and Rapson shows that they developed a incorporate theory of grownup fond regard that consists of six attachment manners they labeled love scheme, ( Bachman & A ; Zakahi ) . They besides suggested that love scheme are based on two factors: the extent to which people are comfy being emotionally near and their willingness to put emotionally in a romantic relationship.
The six schemes are the secure types, the clingy types, the flighty types, the fickle types, the insouciant types, and the uninterested. These are the scheme that are learned from babyhood on in conformity with how a individual responds to their health professional.
A batch of the writers researched for these reviews seem to hold with the survey done by Bachman & A ; Zakahi. There is much support for the six love scheme that are being utilized.
When believing about fond regard and loss, this research seems more than relevant, it seems critical. Adult attachment manners can be linked to loneliness and even depression. In all world, analyzing grownup fond regard could take to remedies for depression and other such diseases.
Method
Harmonizing to past research done by Bartholomew and Horowitz, this peculiar hypothesis for the fond regard theory position predicts that people with different love scheme will pass on in ways that reflect their sensitivity towards being comfy or uncomfortable with closeness and/or familiarity, ( Bachman & A ; Zakahi ) . The hypothesis seems to suit good with the conceptual model because they both relate back to the health professional. How the health professional treats the baby or yearling and how that kid responds back is a erudite phenomenon that stays with the individual into maturity.
To lucubrate, those hiting high on the secure and clingy fond regard graduated tables seem comfy with intimacy and are eager to be in relationships. Therefore, tonss for secure and clingy types should be positively correlated with the different affinity seeking schemes. Those hiting high on the skittish, insouciant and uninterested graduated tables are by and large more comfy with independency and less interested in relationships. Therefore, they should be less likely to prosecute in affinity seeking.
The hypotheses are as follows:
Hypothesis 1: Tonss on the secure scheme will be positively related to the likeliness of utilizing affinity-seeking schemes.
Hypothesis 2: Tonss on the clingy scheme will be positively related to the likeliness of utilizing affinity-seeking schemes.
Hypothesis 3: Tonss on the flighty scheme will be negatively related to the likeliness of utilizing affinity-seeking schemes.
Hypothesis 4: Tonss on the insouciant scheme will be negatively related to the likeliness of utilizing affinity-seeking schemes.
Hypothesis 5: Tonss on the uninterested scheme will be negatively related to the likeliness of utilizing affinity-seeking schemes.
While Bachman & A ; Zakahi came up with the 5 hypotheses above, they found it difficult to suggest a desperate hypothesis for the fickle scheme. They came up with a non-directional hypothesis alternatively.
Hypothesis 6: The fickle love scheme will be related to the likeliness of utilizing affinity-seeking schemes.
This is a sensible figure of hypotheses for the stuff being studied and these hypotheses are straightforward and simple to understand.
For each one of these hypotheses, there is no independent variable. It is believed that there are two dependent variables in each hypothesis: each of the different scheme and the likeliness of utilizing the affinity-seeking schemes.
The conceptual definition of each of the scheme is as follows: the secure types are every bit comfy being close to their spouses and being independent ; clingy types are comfy being close to their
spouses but uncomfortable being independent, doing them to be overly dependent on their lovers ; and the flighty types are uncomfortable with intimacy but comfy being independent, doing them to be excessively self reliant. The volatile types are uncomfortable with both intimacy and independency and look to be torn between them. Those who hold a insouciant love scheme may non hold learned to equilibrate familiarity and dependance. Finally, the uninterested are non at all concerned about being in close relationships. The love scheme were measured on the Love Schema Scale, which has been used in a figure of other surveies. It presents participants with short descriptions of each of the scheme and asks them how good it describes them.
The conceptual definition of affinity-seeking schemes is & # 8220 ; The active societal communicative procedure by which persons attempt to acquire others to wish and experience positive toward them & # 8221 ; ( Bachman & A ; Zakahi, P. 13. ) . The affinity-seeking schemes were measured utilizing Bell and Daly & # 8217 ; s typology, which is a 25 point self report step that uses a 7-point graduated table, ( Bachman & A ; Zakahi ) .
Participants
Initially, the survey started with 399 college pupils ; 170 work forces, 228 adult females, and one individual did non bespeak his/her sex. The mean age of these pupils was 23.6 old ages. Of these pupils, 253 of them were presently in a relationship. All participants were undergraduates at a southwesterly province university ; enrolled in communicating, sociology, or biological science classs, and recruited on a voluntary footing. All of these participants were asked to finish a questionnaire and merely those who were presently in a romantic relationship initiated within the last 12 months were included in this survey. This method provided 117 respondents and included 43 males and 75 females whose average age was 22.5 old ages old. This was a good manner to execute this survey because of memory issues. It would be difficult to remember many inside informations after a twelve-month period. The writers of the article said. & # 8220 ; We realize that even a 12 month standard is susceptible to memory deformation, but it is immensely superior to holding no limitations on clip and seems to strike a sensible via media between the demands of sample size and memory & # 8221 ; ( Bachman & A ; Zakahi, 2000, p. 14 ) .
This was a good mixture of people to utilize for this survey. The age group was early mid-twentiess, which means the participants weren & # 8217 ; t excessively old to retrieve being a yearling. Not merely that but utilizing people who had merely started relationships within the last 12 months was intelligent because the survey is about utilizing attachment manners from when a individual is immature to originate a relationship. For that ground, a research worker wouldn & # 8217 ; t utilize person who hasn & # 8217 ; t initiated a relationship slightly late.
Procedure
The research workers used Hatfield and Rapson & # 8217 ; s measuring of love scheme with the participants. This step presents participants with short descriptions of each of the six love scheme. Each subscriber was asked to bespeak how good each of the scheme described him or her on a five-point graduated table runing from & # 8220 ; Never true of me & # 8221 ; to & # 8220 ; Always true of me & # 8221 ; . Participants received a mark for each love scheme, which allowed the research workers to utilize correlational statistics to prove the hypotheses.
The relational induction schemes of affinity seeking were measured utilizing Bell and Daly & # 8217 ; s graduated table. This graduated table is a 25 point self report step, which uses a 7-point graduated table. It uses the phrases & # 8220 ; I ne’er did this & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; I often did this & # 8221 ; . Participants were instructed to remember the clip they foremost met their spouse and believe about the attacks the used to originate a relationship with that individual.
Consequence
The hypothesis stated that the first two love scheme, secure and clingy, would be positively related to affinity-seeking schemes. It was supported. The hypothesis stated that the last three, flighty, insouciant, and uninterested, would be negatively related to affinity seeking. It was besides supported. The last hypothesis about volatile love scheme was non supported. The correlativity between the fickle love scheme and the affinity-seeking step was non important.
Discussion
The writers chief aims for this survey was to detect how the picks one makes when originating a relationships correlative with the fond regard manners learned at a younger age and besides how the communicating picks people make relate to love scheme. Other surveies have been done on this subject and have come to the same decisions. Levy and Davis assessed the links between fond regard manners and love scheme. The lone difference with their survey was the usage of different, but related scheme. They both focus chiefly on gestating love and fond regard, on associating theories of fond regard manners, and on set uping the outstanding issues in fond regard theory, ( Cassidy and Shaver, 1999 ) . The consequences of the survey sustained the thoughts that love schemes are related to how people initiate relationships. Bachman & A ; Zakahi have recommended that future research workers put a greater restriction on the clip that participants will hold to remember the schemes they used. While the twelve-month period that they used was a good pick, possibly a six-month clip frame would hold been even better.
No survey can be 100 % accurate, even if the best research worker is on the occupation. There are ever exclusions to every regulation, and in this survey one could state that non everyone who uses affinity-seeking schemes would hit high or low in conformity with the hypotheses provided here.
Attachment theory is non a general theory of relationships, merely as relationships don & # 8217 ; Ts have general rulebook or to follow. There have been efforts to explicate the relationships with which fond regard theory trades, and of those efforts, Bachman & A ; Zakahi did an first-class occupation in simplifying a survey that otherwise might hold been perplexing for the simple fact that attachment theory is a phenomena that may ne’er be to the full explained.
Bibliography
EFERENCES
Bachman, Guy. , & A ; Zakahi, Walter. ( 2000 ) . Adult Attachment and strategic Relational Communication: Love Schemas and Affinity Seeking. Communication Reports, 13, 11-19.
Bowlby, John. ( 1980 ) . Loss. Basic Books.
Bowlby, John. ( 1982 ) . Attachment. Basic Books.
Cassidy, Jude. , & A ; Shaver, Phillip. ( 1999 ) . Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications. New York: The Guilford Press.
Sperling, Michael. , & A ; Berman, William. ( 1994 ) . Attachment in Adults: Clinical and Developmental Positions. New York: The Guilford Press.
West, Malcolm. , & A ; Sheldon-Keller, Adrienne. ( 1994 ) . Patterns of Relating: An Adult Attachment Perspective. New York: The Guilford Press.
