Romantic Relationships and the correlation between Attachment and Love Styles
...s. Additionally, previous research found a direct link between the three styles of attachment and relationship satisfaction. A number of other studies have found relationship satisfaction to be greatest for Eros and Agape and lower for Ludus (Fricker & Moore, 2002). Though past studies have extensively investigated love styles, attachment styles, personality types, relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction, investigation of three of these factors during a single study has been more lacking. Clearly, other studies have provided a correlation between at least two of these factors. Therefore, the next step surely would be to attempt to draw a correlation between a larger number of factors, which is precisely what the authors of these studies do. Making further correlations between such components may be used analyze a number of variables and even provide us with some useful predictors, perhaps about personality or relationship satisfaction. Relationship satisfaction: The role of love styles and attachment styles. J. Fricker and S. Moore conducted a study investigating how love styles and attachment styles might reflect one another and how these factors may play roles as possible predictors of relationship satisfaction and/or sexual satisfaction. The participants for this research included 46 men and 64 women, recruited from a university area in Melbourne, Australia, who had recently been or were currently involved in a romantic relationship which had lasted three months or more; 66% of the sample was married. The average age of the participants was 38.7 years, but the range was between 20 to 75. Four scales were used to assess the participants: a love schemas scale( including an adult attachment questionnaire, but also measured the extent each of the 6 love style describes the participant), a love attitudes scale( used to further determine love style), and global measures of both relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. The research corroborated the authors’ hypothesis that attachment and love styles do overlap to a degree, for instance secure attachment was positively correlated to Eros and negatively correlated to Ludus. Additionally, positive love styles (Eros, Storge, and Agape) and secure attachment were positively correlated with relationship satisfaction while Ludus, anxious and avoidant attachment were negative correlates. Eros, Agape, and Ludus consistently predicted relationship satisfaction whether or not sexual satisfaction was included as a variable. However, secure attachment did not always correlate with nor predict relationship satisfaction, which could be do to a number of factors. There was a significant correlation between avoidant attachment and Ludus. The anxious attachment style positively correlated with Mania. Finally, Eros( the most passionate love), was found to be the only love style to positively predict sexual satisfaction, while avoidant attachment, Ludus, Pragma, and Mania negatively predicted sexual satisfaction (Fricker & Moore, 2002). There was large age range and there was a fairly equal number of male and female participants in this particular study. Despite the fact that these participants all lived in the same area, this group of individuals was representative of a variety of different people. However, to increase this, it would have been beneficial to use a larger sample size. The self- tests described in the article are used frequently in psychological research( Fricker & Moore, 2002), thus it follows that they are valid and widely accepted tools. The results were explained easily and efficiently in correlational terms, and were reflective of the conclusions drawn by the authors. Conclusions from this study may point out some important concepts about romantic relationships, including the fact that most love styles are not indicative of sexual satisfaction, nor is secure attachment, and that secure attachment does not always positively correlate with overall relationship satisfaction. Additionally, the casual attitude about sex that accompany both Ludus and avoidant attachment lead to dissatisfaction in sex and in the relationship in general. Understanding that factors such as these are important in developing healthy and loving relationships may help people wish to have loving relationships better assess some problems, as well as the possible sources for these problems, and achieve some growth as a partner. Loving styles: Relationships with personality and attachment styles. The second study, carried out Patrick Heaven and his associates, focused on the correlation between personality, attachment, and love styles. The research used 302 undergraduate psychology students between the ages of 18 and 24, including 212 women and 90 men. Each respondent was provided with a booklet that assessed the Big 5 personality dimensions, a scale of attachment ( using depend and close as adult attachments in place of the terms avoidant and secure, respectively), and a love attitudes test. Questionnaires were completed in a supervised laboratory in approximately 45 minutes. For most personality styles, there was found to be direct links to particular loving styles. Additionally, these were often linked through attachment styles, with neuroticism linked to Mania or Ludus through anxious attachment, for example. Openness was, surprisingly, directly linked to Pragma, while conscientiousness was directly linked to Ludus; extraversion was directly linked to Eros. However, no major personality dimension was found to be predictive of Agape. Yet, according to the author, the data suggest that attachment styles function as “social representations through which major personality dimensions exert their influence on loving styles”( Heaven, 2004 p111). The sample of participants used for this study is not extremely representative. For example, there has been past evidence that relationships evolve over time. Because the age range of this study is only between 18-24 years, it is possible that, because Agape is “the highest expression of love” (Heaven, 2004 p112), it has not yet had time to develop. Additionally, more than twice as many women were used in this study as men. It may be of some signifigance to point out that this was not a cross cultural study, and the results could be representative only of those people living in Australia. Finally, because the participants were all psychology majors, they may have, intentionally or inadvertently, manipulated answers in order to gain desired results rather than true results since all of the surveys were self-tests. The measures may have been more reliable if the partners also participated and assessed themselves and their...