ABSTRACT
This article explores the possibility that romantic love is an attachment process—biosocial process by which affectional bonds are fromed between adult lovers, just as affectional bonds are formed earlier in tile between human and their parents. Key components of attachment theory, developed by Bowlby, Ainsworth, and others to explain the development of affectional bonds in infancy, were translated into terms appropriate to adult romantic love. The translation centered on the three major styles of attachment in infancy—secure, avoidant, and anxious, ambivalent Ȕ and on the notion tha1 continuity of relationship style is due in part to mental models (Bowlby—s “inner working models”) of self and social tile. These models, and hence a person’s attachment style, are seen as determined in part by Childhood relationships with parents. Two questionnaire studies indcated that (a) relative: prevalence of the three attachement styles is roughly the same in adulthood as in infancy, (b) the three kinds of adults differ predictably in the way they experience romantic love, and (c) attachment style is related in theoretically meaningful way to mental models of self and social relationships and to relationship experiences with parents. Implications for theories of romantic love are discussed, as are measurement problems and other issues related to future tests of the attachment perpectives.
