The adult attachment interview and self-reports of romantic attachment: Associations across domains and methods

Two lines of research on adult attachment have emerged; both are based on B owlby and Ainsworth's attachment theory, which in turn relies on evolutiona ry theory Investigators in one tradition use the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to assess "state of mind with respect to attachment." The AAI has be en validated primarily by its ability to predict the attachment classificat ion of an interviewee's child in Ainsworth's "strange situation." Investiga tors in the second tradition use self-report measures to assess romantic "a ttachment style." The self-report measures have been validated by their abi lity to predict features of romantic/marital relationships. Although the tw o constructs, state of mind and romantic attachment, are importantly differ ent and so would not be expected to relate highly, some of their components . especially ability to depend on attachment figures, should be related if both stem from a person's attachment history. We report associations betwee n components, or aspects, of the two measures. Overlap occurs mainly in the areas of comfort depending on attachment figures and comfort serving as an attachment figure for others. Implications of the findings for attachment theory and research, as well as for evolutionary psychology, are discussed.