Attachment Style Scales

Becker & Billings (1997) pointed out a number of problems with previous measures including a lack of internal consistency between items.  They developed the Attachment Style Scales (ASS) which consisted of 19 items for the classifications secure, fearful and preoccupied, all of which were derived from earlier measures (the AAQ, RQ, and AAS).

Preoccupied

• I find others are reluctant to get as close as I would like
• Sometimes people do not want to get close to me beause I want too much to be close to them
• I am uncomfortable being without close relationships, but I sometimes worry that others do not value me as much as I value them.
• I often want to get closer to others than they want to get to me
• I want to be completely emotionally intimate with others, but I often find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like
• My desire to merge sometimes scares people away

Fearful

• I am not sure that I can always depend on others to be there when I need them
• I find it difficult to allow myself to depend on others
• I am comfortable depending on others
• People are never there when you need them
• I know that others will be there when I need them
• I find it difficult to trust others completely

Secure

• I am nervous when anyone gets too close
• I worry that I will be hurt if I allow myself to become too close to others
• I want emotionally close relationships but I find it difficult to trust others completely
• I do not often worry about someone getting too close to me
• I do not often worry about other people letting me down
• I find it relatively easy to get close to others
• I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others

Factor analysis of an original 25 questions resulted in three main factors.  Examination of the highest loading items led to allocation of items (some were dropped) and to these factors being identified as preoccupied, fearful and secure.

Becker and Billings experimented with a two dimensional model in which the secure and fearful styles (correlation r = -.63) were treated as opposite ends of a single dimension but analysis indicated that this did not provide as good a fit for their data, as the three-factor approach. Comparison between scores on the three scales was compared with results from the Relationship Questionnaire.  All three ASS dimensions correlated well with the eqivalently named RQ descriptions but correlations across the factors led the authors to suggest that fearfulness and security could be conceptualized as a single dimension of attachment.