The defining constituents of adult attachment and their assessment

Reviewing the major issues regarding the definition of adult attachment and the nature of the attachment representations, this paper points out that attachment theory approaches intimate interpersonal processes using three fundamental dichotomies: self versus other, autonomy versus relatedness, and dependent versus depended-on positions. When these three dichotomies are intersected, eight components emerge to define the attachment representation: the autonomy and relatedness requests and autonomy and relatedness provisions of self and other. Moreover, as the main methodologies assessing adult attachment are also reviewed, it is argued that these have not yet provided an exhaustive empirical assessment of these eight components individually. It is suggested that such an approach to assessment may yield interesting findings. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.