RELATIONSHIPS & ATTACHMENT
Adult Attachment Style
How your nervous system learned to do closeness.
WHAT IT MEASURES
This test places you on the two dimensions that define adult attachment: anxiety (fear of rejection and abandonment) and avoidance (discomfort with closeness and dependence). Together they describe your default strategy for staying safe in close relationships.
THE SCIENCE
Modern attachment measurement began with Hazan and Shaver applying Bowlby and Ainsworth's developmental theory to adult romantic bonds, and was formalised by Brennan, Clark and Shaver's Experiences in Close Relationships questionnaire, later revised as the ECR-R by Fraley, Waller and Brennan. This is a short, ECR-R-style form built on the same two-factor structure.
Fraley, R. C., Waller, N. G., & Brennan, K. A. (2000). An item response theory analysis of self-report measures of adult attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(2), 350–365.
Attachment style is a tendency, not a life sentence. Styles shift across relationships and can move toward security with awareness and experience.