Individual differences in attachment and reproductive strategies: Commentary on Buss & Greiling

Buss and Greiling cite individual differences in attachment as a principal illustration of adaptive individual differences. This particular example, h owever, is a highly controversial one: Many if not most relationship resear chers assume (implicitly or explicitly) that insecure attachment patterns r eflect some kind of malfunction of the attachment system in modern environm ents rather than evolved facultative strategies. I therefore review some of the arguments and evidence on both sides of this issue, along with the clo sely related topics of mating/reproductive strategies and parental investme nt. In the end I support the Buss-Greiling position, but for reasons not di scussed in their article.