Attachment Theory and Gender Differences in Secure Attachment Style

This lab report explores the gender differences in secure attachment style as per attachment theories and hypothesis. The report discusses the essentials of attachment theory and its concepts, and how early interaction influences an individual's attachment style. The report also includes the methodology, results, and discussion of the experiment.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY 0
PSYCHOLOGY
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

PSYCHOLOGY 2
ABSTRACT
This lab report illustrates the gender which will show a higher or lower scores on the secure
attachment style as per the attachment theories and the hypothesis. The essentials of attachment
theory and its concepts are rooted in object relations theory which is an extension of
psychoanalytic theory. There are theories which are highlighted in the attachments. These
theories were then proved in the lab experiment and the results were recorded in the results
section as shown below.

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INTRODUCTION
Attachment theory is essentially concerned with the affection bond that evolves from
early interaction as in the attachment especially the mother as articulated by the Bowndly in
1982. Attachment style is established and maintained with the primary caregiver when the infant
is born and this early interaction influences the individual to a great extent in later life (Aron,
2013). The fundamentals of attachment theory and its concepts are rooted in object relations
theory which is an extension of psychoanalytic theory (Eccles, 2014). How children were
affected by the early attachment style when they become adults and develop their own
personalities. Ainsworth also went ahead together with her colleagues and identified attachment
styles existing in a mother-child relationship and they focused on the function of attachment
figure which primarily to offer comfort and security (Eckes, 2012). The grouping of the children
was done in three groups which include ambivalent or anxious, avoidant and secure.
Bowlby, 1969 simply viewed attachment as a deep emotional bond that connects one
person to another and, one person may have an attachment to an individual which is not shared.
Responding sensitively to the needs of children is one of the attachment behavior in adults while
seeking proximity to the attachment figure when threatened or upset is experienced in a child
(Eisenberg, 2015). It was proposed by Karairmak that attachment can be understood within an
evolutionary context such that safety and security are provided by the caregiver for the infant
thus enhancing their chance of survival. Freud and Bowlby went ahead and agreed on the
significant role of the family and strong impact on personality formation, socialization as well as
psychological and social development of the child (Goldberg, 2010). The child attachment to
parents affects one’s future and relationships with the others thus making attachment essential for
child’s growth (Lamb, 2013). An infant perceives himself or herself if in case a positive model is
developed by an infant and in case the caregiver is not responsible then an infant found himself

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or herself in negative behaviors to protect itself from unpleasant feelings that may arise from
insecure responses from a caregiver.
Shaver and Brenon observed that adult relationships are characterized by dynamics
similar to these such that adults typically feel safer and safer when their partners are near them
thus the partner can be used a secure base from which the environment can be explored (Legato,
2011). Shaver (1994) also argued that individual understand their current relationship via an
internal working model or attachment style. AlsoDuran (2008) also explain how close
relationship can be affected by conflict which cannot be avoided in human being interaction
(Marion, 2011). And due to conflict, the relationship can be weakened or strengthened thus
making it a critical event in a relationship and when handled appropriately it can be productive,
leading to deeper understanding, mutual respect and closeness.
This lab report focuses on some of the hypothesis, and some of this hypothesis are as
below,
Hypothesis. This should focus on secure attachment styles, and should predict which gender will
show higher or lower scores. It was hypothesized that female participants will show a more
secure attachment style. The hypothesis will hence be proved in the result section.
METHOD
Design
The formal design of this experiment was an independent measures t-test was conducted to
determine if there was a significantly different level of secure attachment for males and females.
Therefore each condition was conducted by a different group of participants (McCreary, 2010).
An independent measures t-test was as well done to determine if there was a significantly

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different level of fearful attachment for males and females and the results are given in the result
section (Paludi, 2014). An independent measures t-test was conducted to determine if there was
a significantly different level of preoccupied attachment for males and females and the results are
given in the result section below.
Participants
This part is very crucial as it gives the details of who took part in the experiment- it
provides the info of their age, gender, among other special feature which is directly related and
relevant to the experiment. For the type of the experiment, the participants were volunteers that
is they were not paid to give the information about the experiment, the participants were friends
and relatives to the students (Shaffer, 2013). And in the experiment there were about 1548
participants who completed the entire survey, they were friends and family of first-year
psychology students. And for the gender there were, 474 were male, 1064 female, and 10 other.
And on the age, it was taken to be an average age was 29.90 (having a standard deviation
of 14.09). The maximum was 84 years minimum age was 18 years (Shi, 2003). Of all the
participants, there were 745 participants who were students and 788 participants who were non-
students and 15 participants did not respond to the questions answered.
Apparatus
In psychology lab report, apparatus means things like the stopwatches, computers and
questionnaires which were employed to help obtain the results during the experiment (Paludi,
2014). And for this particular psychology lab report, it is the questionnaire which was
exclusively employed to help obtain the results (Underwood, 2013). Some of these question
asked includes the following; Do men and women differ in the types of attachment styles they
exhibit in adult life? A complete questionnaire is shown below;

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Please select the option that is most appropriate for you.
What is your gender?
 Female
 Male
 Other – please specify________________________________________________
What is your current age? ________________________________________________
Are you currently a student?
 Yes
 No

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RSQ
Please read each of the following statements and rate the extent to which you believe
each statement best describes your feelings about close relationships.
Table 1 : Showing the questionnaire
Not
at A little Much
Very
Somewhat much
all
like like me like me
like me
(3) like me
me
(1) (2) (4)
(5)
I find it difficult to depend on
other people
It is very important to me to feel
independent

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I find it easy to get emotionally
close to
others.
I want to merge completely with
another
person.
I worry that I will be hurt if I
allow myself to
become too close to others.
I am comfortable without close
emotional
relationships.
I am not sure that I can always
depend on
others to be there when I need
them.
I want to be completely
emotionally intimate
with others.
I worry about being alone.

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I am comfortable depending on
other people.
I often worry that romantic
partners don't
really love me.
I find it difficult to trust others
completely.
Not at A little Much
Very
Somewhat much
all like like me like me
like me
(3) like me
me (1) (2) (4)
(5)
I worry about others
getting too close to me.

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I want emotionally close
relationships.
I am comfortable having
other people depend
on me.
I worry that others don't
value me as much as
I value them.
People are never there
when you need them.
My desire to merge
completely sometimes
scares people away.
It is very important to
me to feel self-
sufficient.
I am nervous when
anyone gets too close to
me.

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I often worry that
romantic partners won't
want to stay with me.
I prefer not to have
other people depend on
me.
I worry about being
abandoned.
I am somewhat
uncomfortable being
close to
others.
I find that others are
reluctant to get as close
as I would like.
I prefer not to depend
on others.
I know that others will
be there when I need
them.

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I worry about having
others not accept me.
Romantic partners often
want me to be closer
then I feel comfortable
being.
I find it relatively easy
to get close to others.
Not at A little Much
Very
Somewhat much
all like like me like me
like me
(3) like me
me (1) (2) (4)
(5)
I find it difficult to depend on other
people

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It is very important to me to feel
independent
I find it easy to get emotionally close
to
others.
I want to merge completely with
another
person.
I worry that I will be hurt if I allow
myself to
become too close to others.
I am comfortable without close
emotional
relationships.
I am not sure that I can always depend
on
others to be there when I need them.
I want to be completely emotionally
intimate
with others.

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I worry about being alone.
I am comfortable depending on other
people.
I often worry that romantic partners
don't
really love me.
I find it difficult to trust others
completely.
Not at A little Much
Very
Somewhat much
all like like me like me
like me
(3) like me
me (1) (2) (4)
(5)
I worry about others
getting too close to me.

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I want emotionally close
relationships.
I am comfortable having
other people depend
on me.
I worry that others don't
value me as much as
I value them.
People are never there
when you need them.
My desire to merge
completely sometimes
scares people away.
It is very important to me
to feel self-
sufficient.
I am nervous when anyone
gets too close to

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me.
I often worry that romantic
partners won't
want to stay with me.
I prefer not to have other
people depend on
me.
I worry about being
abandoned.
I am somewhat
uncomfortable being close
to
others.
I find that others are
reluctant to get as close
as I would like.
I prefer not to depend on
others.
I know that others will be
there when I need

PSYCHOLOGY 17
them.
I worry about having
others not accept me.
Romantic partners often
want me to be closer
then I feel comfortable
being.
I find it relatively easy to
get close to others.
Procedure
The survey was conducted by 1548 participants where 474 were male, 1064 female, 10 other as
indicated above. The survey session did not take more than 10 minutes, all the questions given in
the questionnaire section were addressed within this time frame and the results were given as in
the result section below.
RESULTS
After the survey and the filling of the questionnaire, the following results were recorded.
Mean attachment style scores are presented below for males and females
Table 2: Showing the results
Secure Fearful Preoccupied Dismissing

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M SD M SD M SD M SD
Male 2.86 0.62 2.57 0.87 2.56 0.79 3.19 0.69
Female 2.74 0.62 2.75 0.90 2.70 0.76 3.19 0.65
An independent measures t-test was conducted to determine if there was a significantly different
level of secure attachment for males and females (McCreary, 2010). Results showed that males
scored a mean average of (SD = 0.62), while females scored a mean average of (SD=0.62). This
difference was not significant it was zero
An independent measures t-test was conducted to determine if there was a significantly different
level of fearful attachment for males and females. Results showed that males scored a mean
average of (SD = 0.87), while females scored a mean average of (SD=0.90). This difference was
significant as it was 0.03
An independent measures t-test was conducted to determine if there was a significantly different
level of preoccupied attachment for males and females. Results showed that males scored a mean
average of (SD = 0.79), while females scored a mean average of (SD=0.76). This difference was
significant as it was 0.03
An independent measures t-test was conducted to determine if there was a significantly different
level of dismissing attachment for males and females. Results showed that males scored a mean
average of (SD = 0.69), while females scored a mean average of (SD=0.65). This difference was
significant as it was 0.04

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DISCUSSION
From the results above, it can be clearly seen that all the four the hypothesis were fully
addressed and supported. It is clearly shown in the results that the secure attachment style was
very high for the male with 2.86 and low in a female with 2.76 even though the mean average SD
was equal at 0.62. Therefore the difference between the male and female was not significant as
there was no difference. The preoccupied attachment clearly shows that it was higher in female
than males. The male had an SD of 0.79 while the female had an SD of 0.76. This clearly shows
that males preoccupied than females. It can be concluded so since the difference was significant
with a difference of 0.03 (Willis, 2011).
The fearful attachment style was scrutinized between the males and the females and the
results were obtained as in the above results section. The female has an SD of 0.9 while the male
had an SD of 0.87 (Brennan, 1991). The difference was very significant here at 0.03, therefore, it
can be said that the females are always afraid than males on several occasions. And for the last
hypothesis, the dismissing attachment style was obtained to be higher in males with an SD of
0.69 and lower in the female with 0.65. This records a significant difference of 0.04, this clearly
illustrates that males are always in dismissing attachment style than males (Paludi, 2014). And
these differences are basically contributed by the individual and the social development of this
participant since they were children. These were due to how the male and female interacted and
drilled as they were growing from the infancy to adulthood (Burke, 2012). From the theories
discussed above. Shaver and Brenon observed that adult relationships are characterized by
dynamics similar to these such that adults typically feel safer and safer when their partners are
near them thus the partner can be used a secure base from which the environment can be
explored and this was more so in females as they were more secure than their counterparts men
(Duran, 2008).

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