João M. Moreira ¹

Resumo: O pressuposto de que o estilo de vinculação nos adultos é uma caracte­rística da pessoa, igualmente expressa em diferentes relações, foi examinado atra­vés de um estudo de generalizabilidade. Estudantes universitários responderam a um curto questionário medindo as 2 dimensões fundamentais das auto­‑avaliações do estilo de vinculação dos adultos (Preocupação e Evitação) para cada uma de 5 relações (pai, mãe, melhor amigo do mesmo sexo, parceiro romântico ou melhor amigo do sexo oposto, outra pessoa próxima). Verificou­‑se que, para a Evitação, o componente de variância correspondente à interacção PessoaRelação tinha uma magnitude que era aproximadamente o dobro da do componente Pessoa, enquanto que o oposto acontecia para a Preocupação. Estes resultados implicam a necessi­dade de se considerar características específicas das relações e apoiam a proposta de Bartholomew (1990), de que a evitação reflecte a representação dos outros (e é, portanto, específica das relações), enquanto que a preocupação reflecte a repre­sentação de si próprio (e é, portanto, específica da pessoa).

Palavras‑chave: vinculação, relações, generalizabilidade

Is attachment style relationship‑specific? A generalizability study

Abstract: The assumption that adult attachment style is a person­‑specific characteristic exhibited across different relationships was examined in a generalizability study. College students responded to a brief measure of the 2 fundamental dimensions of adult attachment style self­‑ratings (Preoccupation and Avoidance) for each of 5 dif­ferent relationships (mother, father, best friend of the same gender, romantic partner or best friend of the opposite gender, other close person). It was found that, for Avoidance, the PersonRelationship interaction variance component was approximately twice as large as that for Person, while the opposite happened for Preoccupation. These results imply the need to consider specific relationship characteristics, and support Bartholomew’s (1990) proposal that avoidance reflects the representation of others (and thus is relationship­‑specific), while preoccupation reflects representation of self (and thus is person­‑specific).

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¹ Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade de Lisboa. Partes de versões anteriores deste trabalho foram apresentadas na Pré­‑Conferência para Jovens In­vestigadores da International Network on Personal Relationships, Oxford, Ohio, EUA, em Junho de 1997, e na European Conference on Psychological Assess­ment, Lisboa, Setembro de 1997. Agradeço a preciosa ajuda dos meus colegas Paulo Ventura, Luísa Lima, Sílvia Silva e Susana Tavares, na recolha de dados. Quero também dar o devido reconhecimento às minhas antigas estudantes Ana Luísa Duarte e Sónia Comenda, pela sua colaboração nas fases iniciais deste projecto. A correspondência referente a este ar­tigo deve ser enviada para João M. Moreira, Facul­dade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Alameda da Universidade, 1649­‑013 Lisboa, Portugal. Correio electrónico pode ser enviado para jmoreira@fpce.ul.pt.