ABSTRACT

R esearchers have proposed that culture and attachment style may have a profound impact on the way people think, feel, and behave in love and sexual relationships. Scholars interested in this topic have generally examined three factors: (a) cultural background (see Schmitt, 2008); (b) cultural values (whether participants are individualistic or collectivist in orientation; see Doherty, Hatfield, Thompson, & Choo, 1994); and (c) participants’ love schemas, a measure designed to assess six popular attachment styles (see Hatfield & Rapson, 2005). Scholars have discovered that in a wide variety of cultures and ethnic groups, with people possessing diverse cultural values, people’s attachment styles have a profound impact on their romantic preferences, their comfort when facing serious

CONTENTS Habits of the Heart 228

Love Schemas 228 Secure Attachment: A Cultural Universal? 229 Secure Attachment: Cultural Variations 230

Culture, Love Schemas, and Romantic Behavior 230 Culture, Love Schemas, and Romantic Preferences 231 Culture, Love Schemas, and the Intensity of Passionate Love 231 Culture, Love Schemas, and Sexual Fantasies, Desires, and Behavior 233 Culture, Love Schemas, and Commitment 234 Culture, Attachment Styles, and the Nature of Intimate Relationships 235 Culture, Attachment Styles, and Relationship Endings 236

Conclusions and Clinical Implications 238 References 239

romantic commitments, the dynamics of romantic and marital relationships, and how people react when romantic and marital relationships fall apart.