Gender and working models of attachment: An examination of gender differences in communication strategies used to pursue attachment goals

Attachment theory has been developed as an explicitly gender-neutral theory that describes the ways in which our earliest interactions with a primary caregiver become internalized and serve to guide our goals and expectations in social interactions across the life span. Gender theorists, by contrast, have argued that men and women tend to hold fundamentally different beliefs about the nature of attachment, differentially characterized by beliefs about emotional connectedness or separateness in relation to others (relationship-self orientations). A theoretical model was proposed that described the ways that gender differences in beliefs about attachment might influence relational strategies encoded in working models of attachment. It was expected that a stronger connected-self orientation would prompt the use of more emotion-focused strategies for pursuing attachment goals, and that a stronger separate-self orientation would prompt the use of more rule-based strategies. Furthermore, it was expected that the degree and functionality of strategy use would depend on attachment style.;One-hundred and two college students were given self-report measures of gender-role, relationship-self orientation, and communicative responses to conflict. Relationship-self orientations were additionally measured using a cognitive lexical decision task designed to assess implicit relational schemas. Finally, as a more naturalistic measure of communication style, participants engaged in a projective writing task whereby they were asked to create stories about two pre-determined relationship conflicts.;Evidence was found for differences in gender-based beliefs about attachment, such that femininity was associated with a stronger connected-self orientation and masculinity was associated with a more separate-self orientation. Overall, however, limited support was found for the described model. Consistent with the model, it was found that more secure individuals with a stronger feminine/connected-self orientation used more straightforward emotional communication strategies and that more avoidant individuals used more conflict avoidance strategies regardless of their relationship-self orientation. Contrary to the model, however, individuals with a more feminine/connected-self orientation were also found to use more verbal negotiation (rule-based) strategies in responding to conflict, suggesting a stronger proclivity, among feminine individuals, towards the use of proactive strategies in general.;The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding attachment behavior in the context of gender.