The role of attachment style, gender, and relationship history in romantic relationship satisfaction and partner selection

• Main Author: Meyers, Laura L
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2006
• Subjects: Cognitive style; Gender; Influence; Personal relationships; Social psychology
• ISBN: 0542863855; 9780542863851

The influence of attachment style, gender, and relationship history in predicting relationship satisfaction and future partner selection was examined in a sample of 170 women and 96 men. Each participant rated their own attachment style, their current partner's perceived style (if currently involved in a serious relationship), their relationship history, and their desired level of attachment characteristics in future partners using the circumplex measure of attachment (VVMS) (Klohnen, 2005), which provides a dimensional rating of each of the four attachment styles (i.e., secure, dismissive, preoccupied, fearful). Attachment style, perceived partner's style, and relationship history were entered into a regression equation predicting relationship satisfaction and desired level of future partners' attachment characteristics. Relationship stability was independently predicted by women's perceptions of their partners' levels of avoidance, and by men's perceptions of their own levels of avoidance and their partners' levels of avoidance. Desired future partner's attachment characteristics were almost exclusively predicted by the individual's self-report of his or her own level of that characteristic (e.g., the individual's level of preoccupied significantly predicted the desired level of preoccupied in future partners). Actual partner attachment characteristics were not found to correlate with desired levels of characteristics. Future directions are discussed in terms of examining the interactions between relationship satisfaction, actual partner, and desired partner attachment characteristics.