Attachment Theory

Attachment theory is the combined work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991). John Bowlby formulated the basic principles of this theory to explain the emotional bond between infants and their caregivers (Fraley & Shaver, 2000). Bowlby explains that a motivational system, called the attachment behavioural system, I based on an evolutionary model which states that “genetic selection” preferred attachment behaviours, because they increased the likelihood of protection and provided survival gains, such as feeding, social interaction, and learning about the environment, while in close proximity to the attachment figure (Cassidy & Shaver, 2008). Further, Bowlby (1969) developed the idea of attachment to highlight the role

Kalichman et al. (1993) found that college men who have not had intercourse are more likely to favour the avoidant attachment style. Cooper, Shaver, et al. (1998) also found that avoidant young adults are less likely to have had sexual intercourse than secure or anxious -ambivalent young adults. On the other hand, avoidant individuals who have had sexual intercourse have found to have a greater engagement in casual sex (Brennan & Shaver, 1995), and are more likely to have had sexual intercourse with a stranger (i.e., hooking up). (Tracy et al., 2003) explain that sexually active avoidant individuals, prefer low emotional intimacy within relationships. Brennan and Shaver (1995) maintain that anxious individuals seem to be in a predicament; even though they are in need of emotional closeness of a committed romantic relationship, they have trouble maintaining such relationships, because they are not accepting of casual sex outside of committed relationships. Comparatively, a sample of college students indicated that anxious attached individuals were more likely than secure or avoidant attached individuals to report having sex due to fear of losing their partners (Tracy et al.,

Once the questionnaires were complete, respondents dropped it in a locked box in the psychology department for anonymity. The purpose of this research were given. The participants were provided with a quiet location and no time limit to the questionnaires. Further, the completion of all questions was checked. The data file was collected, cleaned and analyzed in spss. Ethics approval for this study from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (MUHREC)