Attachment Styles Quiz - What's Your Interaction Type?

What are attachment styles?

Attachment styles describe how we seek reassurance and handle closeness in important relationships. Do you feel able to rely on someone, worry that they might leave, or feel uneasy when they get close? Attachment offers a way to understand these differences.

Your feelings can vary with the person and situation. A style is not a judgment of your character or a label that defines you for life.

What this test tells you

1. 40questions

   Reflect on everyday relationships

2. 

   

   

   
   4styles

   Find the closest attachment style

3. Explore your style in detail

• Relationship patterns
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Romantic tendencies

Your answers to 40 questions indicate the closest of four styles. Strengths, weaknesses and romantic tendencies are general descriptions of that style, not individual measures of your abilities or compatibility.

The four attachment styles

These patterns describe different ways of seeking security and handling closeness. Look for the parts that resonate with your own experiences.

Secure Attachment

Comfortable with closeness and independence

You tend to trust people close to you and seek support when needed. Expressing your feelings and responding to another person's needs can sit comfortably alongside a sense of independence.

Explore this style

Anxious Attachment

Seeking reassurance in connection

You tend to want closeness while being sensitive to changes in another person's attention. A delayed reply, for example, may bring up worries about where the relationship stands.

Explore this style

Avoidant Attachment

Valuing independence and personal space

You may prefer handling difficulties on your own to relying on others. When a relationship feels too close, you might hold back your feelings or seek more time alone.

Explore this style

Disorganized Attachment

Wanting closeness while fearing hurt

You may want a close connection and also feel concerned about being hurt. This can create a pull between seeking someone out and wanting to keep your distance.

Explore this style

This test uses “Disorganized Attachment” for a pattern of wanting closeness while fearing it, often described as fearful-avoidant in adult attachment discussions. Infant disorganized attachment is assessed in a different context using different methods; these are not the same assessment.

Two ways to understand attachment

Adult attachment research often describes differences in terms of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. Both vary along a continuum; people do not fall neatly into four separate boxes.

How the four styles relate

↑Higher avoidance

Lower avoidance↓

←Lower anxiety

Higher anxiety→

Avoidant Attachment

Disorganized Attachment

Secure Attachment

Anxious Attachment

The horizontal axis shows anxiety; the vertical axis shows avoidance. Select a person to explore that style.

This is a conceptual guide to the theory. This test does not calculate or display separate anxiety and avoidance scores.

From childhood bonds to adult relationships

Attachment theory began with children's bonds with caregivers as a source of security. Researchers later extended its ideas to adult romantic and other close relationships.

1. The foundations

   Bowlby and Ainsworth

   Bowlby developed attachment theory. Ainsworth and colleagues studied infant–caregiver relationships by observing separation and reunion.

2. 1987

   Romantic love as attachment

   Hazan and Shaver investigated romantic love as an attachment process, bringing the framework into the study of adult relationships.

3. From 1991

   Four categories and continuous dimensions

   Bartholomew and Horowitz proposed four adult attachment categories. Later work also examined anxiety and avoidance as continuous dimensions.

Is childhood the whole story? Can styles change?

Early relationships matter, but later experiences matter too. Adult attachment shows both continuity and change. Childhood experiences alone cannot establish someone's current style.

Security can also differ across relationships with partners, family and friends. As you answer, think about your recent experiences with people close to you.

Putting your result in perspective

An attachment style is not a medical diagnosis. This test is a guide for reflection; it does not diagnose attachment disorders, establish a history of trauma or caregiving, or assess compatibility with a partner.

Research supporting attachment theory does not establish the accuracy of this particular 40-question test. If a result feels unfamiliar, consider both the situations where it fits and those where it does not.