Browsing by Author "Utriainen, Maarit"

In this Bachelor's Thesis, the effect of the attachment style on the coping strategies of adults in romantic relationships and on the relationship satisfaction is examined. The attachment styles were examined in the framework of the attachment theory developed initially by the British psychiatrist, John Bowlby. The study questions were 1) how individuals of different attachment styles experience relationship satisfaction and what kind of coping strategies they use in emotionally stressful situations and 2) how individuals of different attachment styles experience the dissolution of a relationship. Adult attachment has been studied as an important predictor of romantic relationship quality in many earlier empirical studies which also is a starting point for this study. The Thesis was executed as a descriptive literature review. The research material consisted of 11 peer reviewed articles that were collected from the Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) and the Ovid PsycARTICLES databases of the library of the University of Helsinki. The material collected was limited to the years 2000—2015. All the articles were in English and they were written by international researches. A content analysis was used as an analysis method. The results of all the articles support the view according to which internal working models which are based on the attachment style affect the quality and satisfaction of the relationship. In general, securely attached couples were doing well in their relationships and were able to use many different constructive coping strategies in their relationships. Insecurely attached couples used easily negative coping strategies in emotionally stressful situations which often made relationship conflicts worse and reduced the relationship satisfaction. After the end of the relationships, securely attached individuals tend to have less negative emotions than insecurely attached individuals. It seems that attachment plays also a role in the dissolution of a relationship.