Attachment theory has assumed an important role in the study of adult close relationships in recent years. The series of four studies proposed below will examine how different adult attachment styles ar associated with the emotional quality and satisfaction of close, romantic relationships. This research has 2 primary objectives. The first objective is to understand how, and under what conditions, different attachment first objective is to understand how, and under what conditions, different attachment styles are related to the amount of emotional support and relationship satisfaction during styles are related to the amount of emotional support and relationship satisfaction during stressful situations and major life events. More specifically, this program of research will focus on the seeking and giving of emotional support in couples when one or both partners are distressed. Past research has shown that relationships in which partners freely seek and offer emotional support enhance positive mental health and subjective well-being. The second primary objective of this research is to determine the extent to which different measures of adult attachment styles (i.e., attachment interviews that assess global styles of relating to people in general, self-report attachment inventories that assess how individuals relate to romantic partners in general, and self-report inventories that index how individuals relate to their current romantic partner/relationship) correlate with one another, result in similar attachment classifications for individuals, and differentially predict various criterion measures (i.e., the attachment-related behaviors rated in this series of studies). Long-term dating couples and married couples will participate in one self-report and three behavioral observation studies that will examine the conditions under which persons with different attachment styles seek emotional support from their romantic partners and provide support when they and/or their partners are distressed.
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