These people are both comfortable showing affection towards their loved ones while also being alone and independent. The four attachment strategies people adopt are: secure, anxious, avoidant and anxious-avoidant.ġ) Secure: people who are comfortable displaying interest and affection Your attachment strategy likely explains why your relationships have succeeded or failed, the manner in which they did and why you’re attracted to who you’re attracted to. In short, researchers have found that the way in which infants get their needs met by their parents determines their “attachment strategy” throughout their lives.
4 types of people in relationships, according to “attachment theory”Īs Manson explains, attachment theory began in the 1950s and has since amassed a sizeable body of research behind it. And I now know what to do to live a better life. I’m the “avoidant type” (number 3 below). Recently I read about attachment theory and came to the sudden and painful realization that the problem isn’t the women I’ve been dating. The truth is that I’m 36 years old and have lived almost all of my adult life as a single man. I continue to succeed at my external focuses in life, but don’t have any success at building any kind of emotional and loving connection with a romantic partner. Week after week, month after month and year after year this same thing happens. (Have you experienced this before? Have you tried dating someone like this? Let me know in the comments below.) I conclude that she’s “not quite right” and move on to the next person. The usual sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach returns. I feel incredible excitement about the possibility of sparks flying. Living my whole adult life as a single manĮvery time I meet someone new, the same thing happens. And you can watch the video version of this article below. I’ll share the 4 types of people according to attachment theory below, but first I’ll explain the problem I was facing. I knew this as soon as I came across “attachment theory” in an article by Mark Manson which describes the nature of emotional attachment between humans, and the four types of people in relationships. The brutal truth I discovered is that the problem is me, not the women I’ve been dating.
There are no easy solutions, despite what the law of attraction gurus will tell you. The way to attract the perfect partner into your life is completely different than what most people believe.
I now know this approach to life is total bullsh*t. I believed that all I had to do was keep on enjoying life, focus on my passion, identify the qualities I was looking for and soon enough I would attract the perfect partner. I used to believe the reason was because I hadn’t met the right person yet. I’ve been single for nearly all of my adult life, am still single, and I finally figured out what the problem is. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission. We sometimes include products we think are useful for our readers.