Attachment processes in adult romantic relationships
Affiliation of Author, Researcher, or Creator
Marlboro Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies
Department
Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies
Author(s)
Pietromonaco, P. R., & Beck, L. A.
Resource Type
Book Chapter
Publication, Publisher or Distributor
American Psychological Association
Publication Date
2015
Brief Description
We begin this chapter with an overview of attachment theory, including the main tenets of Bowlby’s (1969) original theory as well as later extensions to adult romantic relationships. We provide an updated theoretical statement that incorporates Bowlby’s original theory and Hazan and Shaver’s (1987) provocative extension to adult romantic relationships as well as additional theoretical revisions from more than 2 decades of theoretical development and empirical findings. We review and evaluate research following from attachment theory that has demonstrated that attachment shapes (a) how people experience and regulate emotion, (b) how they think about their romantic relationships, (c) their motives and goals in those relationships, (d) how they behave and interact with their partners (e.g., how they provide and seek support), and (e) how they initiate and maintain relationships and respond to relationship dissolution or loss. Finally, we discuss several emerging themes and promising directions for future research, including expanding on a person-in-context approach to attachment processes, investigating how partners may promote change or stability in each other’s attachment representations, exploring interactions between attachment and temperament or personality, and examining the implications of attachment for both partners’ health-related processes and outcomes.
Keywords
close relationships, romantic relationships, adult attachment
Recommended Citation
Pietromonaco, P. R., & Beck, L. A. (2015). Attachment processes in adult romantic relationships. In M. Mikulincer, P. R. Shaver, J. A. Simpson, & J. F. Dovidio (Eds.), APA handbook of personality and social psychology (Vol. 3): Interpersonal relations (pp. 33-64). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14344-002
Preferred Citation Style
APA
Peer Reviewed
1
License Agreement
1