Definitions
- Insecure attachment:
-
An individual relationship can be insecure when it contains elements of mistrust together with anxious or avoidant elements and lacks a secure base. It is considered a dysfunctional relationship.
- Insecure attachment style:
-
This is an interpersonal style with anxious (e.g., fearful or anxious ambivalent) or avoidant (e.g., dismissive) characteristics related to problematic experience in childhood and difficulties with careers and adult relationships. Such styles affect around 30% or more of the population, depending on which measures used.
- Anxious attachment style:
-
Enmeshed/Preoccupied is a dependent style with high need for proximity and under-developed autonomy. It involves clinging behavior which can involve anger when needs are not met. Fearful style involves fear of rejection or criticism and this is often accompanied by behavioral avoidance.
Dismissive/Avoidant styles include those withdrawn who have over-developed self-reliance and keep distance...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abdul Kadir, N. B., & Bifulfo, A. (in press). Exploring disorganized attachment style among Malay mothers in Malaysia: A study using the Attachment Style Interview. Social Work in Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2016.1224796.
Abdul Kadir, N. B., & Bifulco, A. (2013). Insecure attachment style as a vulnerability factor for depression: Recent findings in a community-based study of Malay single and married mothers. Psychiatry Research, 210(3), 919–924.
Ainsworth, M. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Oxford, England: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Archer, M., Steele, M., Lan, J., Jin, X., Herreros, F., & Steele, H. (2015). Attachment between infants and mothers in China Strange situation procedure findings to date and a new sample. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 39(6), 485–491.
Baer, J. C., & Martinez, C. D. (2006). Child maltreatment and insecure attachment: a meta-analysis. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 24(3), 187–197.
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(2), 226–244.
Beeney, J. E., Wright, A. G., Stepp, S. D., Hallquist, M. N., Lazarus, S. A., Beeney, J. R., … & Pilkonis, P. A. (2016). Insecure attachment disorganized attachment and personality functioning in adults: A latent class analysis. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment. https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000184.
Bifulco, A. (2014). The attachment style interview (ASI). In S. Farnfield & P. Holmes (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of attachment: Assessment (pp. 178–191). London/New York: Routledge.
Bifulco, A., Moran, P. M., Ball, C., & Bernazzani, O. (2002a). Adult attachment style I: Its relationship to clinical depression. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 37, 50–59.
Bifulco, A., Moran, P. M., Ball, C., & Lillie, A. (2002b). Adult attachment style II: Its relationship to psychosocial depressive-vulnerability. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 37, 60–67.
Bifulco, A., Mahon, J., Kwon, J. H., Moran, P. M., & Jacobs, C. (2003). The Vulnerable Attachment Style Questionnaire (VASQ): An interview-based measure of attachment styles that predict depressive disorder. Psychological Medicine, 33, 1099–1110.
Bifulco, A., Kwon, J., Jacobs, C., Moran, P. M., Bunn, A., & Beer, N. (2006). Adult attachment style as mediator between childhood neglect/abuse and adult depression and anxiety. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 41(10), 796–805.
Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(4), 644–663.
Crowell, J., & Owens, G. (1998). Manual for the current relationship interview and scoring system. Version 4. Retrieved (14 December 2016) from http://ww.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/measures/content/cri_manual.pdf.
Fearon, P., Shmueli-Goetz, Y., Viding, E., Fonagy, P., & Plomin, R. (2014). Genetic and environmental influences on adolescent attachment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(9), 1033–1041.
Fraley, R. C., Roisman, G. I., Booth-LaForce, C., Owen, M. T., & Holland, A. S. (2013). Interpersonal and genetic origins of adult attachment styles: A longitudinal study from infancy to early adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(5), 817–838.
Gumley, A. I., Taylor, H. E. F., Schwannauer, M., & MacBeth, A. (2014). A systematic review of attachment and psychosis: measurement, construct validity and outcomes. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 129(4), 257–274.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511–524.
Holmes, B. M., & Lyons-Ruth, K. (2006). The relationship questionnaire-clinical version (RQ-CV): Introducing a profoundly-distrustful attachment style. Infant Mental Health Journal, 27(3), 310–325.
van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2010). Invariance of adult attachment across gender, age, culture, and socioeconomic status? Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27(2), 200–208.
van Ijzendoorn, M. H., & Sagi-Schwartz, A. (1999). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: Universal and contextual dimensions. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 713–734). New York: The Guilford Press.
Jin, M. K., Jacobvitz, D., Hazen, N., & Jung, S. H. (2012). Maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security in Korea: Cross-cultural validation of the Strange Situation. Attachment & Human Development, 14(1), 33–44.
Kidd, T., Poole, L., Ronaldson, A., Leigh, E., Jahangiri, M., & Steptoe, A. (2016). Attachment anxiety predicts depression and anxiety symptoms following coronary artery bypass graft surgery. British Journal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12191.
Lee Raby, K., Cicchetti, D., Carlson, E. A., Egeland, B., & Collins, W. A. (2013). Genetic contributions to continuity and change in attachment security: A prospective, longitudinal investigation from infancy to young adulthood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54(11), 1223–1230.
Main, M., George, C., & Kaplan, N. (1985). Adult attachment interview. Growing points of attachment theory. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Mikulincer, M., Florian, V., & Weller, A. (1993). Attachment styles, coping strategies, and posttraumatic psychological distress: The impact of the Gulf War in Israel. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(5), 817–826.
Paetzold, R. L., Rholes, W. S., & Kohn, J. L. (2015). Disorganized attachment in adulthood: Theory, measurement, and implications for romantic relationships. Review of General Psychology, 19(2), 146–156.
Pottharst, K., & Kessler, R. (1990). The search for methods and measures. In K. Pottharst (Ed.), Research explorations in Adult Attachment (pp. 9–37). New York: Peter Lang.
Ringer, J. M., Buchanan, E. E., Olesek, K., & Lysaker, P. H. (2014). Anxious and avoidant attachment styles and indicators of recovery in schizophrenia: Associations with self-esteem and hope. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 87(2), 209–221.
Schmitt, D. P., Alcalay, L., Allensworth, M., Allik, J., Ault, L., Austers, I., et al. (2004). Patterns and universals of adult romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions are models of self and of other pancultural constructs? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35(4), 367–402.
Sheinbaum, T., Bedoya, E., Ros-Morente, A., Kwapil, T. R., & Barrantes-Vidal, N. (2013). Association between attachment prototypes and schizotypy dimensions in two independent non-clinical samples of Spanish and American young adults. Psychiatry Research, 210(2), 408–413.
Sitko, K., Varese, F., Sellwood, W., Hammond, A., & Bentall, R. (2016). The dynamics of attachment insecurity and paranoid thoughts: An experience sampling study. Psychiatry Research, 246, 32–38.
Sockalingam, S., Blank, D., Al Jarad, A., Alosaimi, F., Hirschfield, G., & Abbey, S. E. (2013). The role of attachment style and depression in patients with hepatitis C. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 20(2), 227–233.
Tasca, G. A., & Balfour, L. (2014). Attachment and eating disorders: A review of current research. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 47(7), 710–717.
Volling, B. L., Notaro, P. C., & Larsen, J. J. (1998). Adult attachment styles: Relations with emotional well-being, marriage, and parenting. Family Relations, 355–367.
Wang, C. C. D., & Mallinckrodt, B. S. (2006). Differences between Taiwanese and US cultural beliefs about ideal adult attachment. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(2), 192–204.
West, M., & Sheldon-Keller, A. (1992). The assessment of dimensions relevant to adult reciprocal attachment. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 37(9), 600–606.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Abdul Kadir, N.B. (2020). Insecure Attachment. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_2025
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_2025
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-24610-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-24612-3
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences