1. The Hazan article mentions that there is a core experience of romantic love shared by all regardless of attachment style. Is this a uniquely human experience? And is it this experience of love that allows us to resist temptation even if it would be reproductively advantageous to do so, or forgive after infidelity?

2. Hazan and Shaver describe romantic love as “a biological process designed by evolution to facilitate attachment between adult sexual partners…” (523). What distinguishes this evolutionary theory from Buss’ evolutionary theory? Are the two schools of thought mutually exclusive?

3. A few of the articles hint at the idea of attachment styles being self-fulfilling prophecies. Do you agree with this at all? And could learned helplessness play a factor in attachment styles as well?

4. None of the articles discussed the partner choice of those with certain types of attachment styles. One would expect, for example, that someone who is avoidant would not end up with someone who is anxious because their needs would conflict completely. Do you have any predictions about who would partner up with whom? And do you think that the attachment style of someone’s partner will influence that individual positively or negatively?

5. Hazan and Shaver suggest that it is possible to change one’s attachment style. Can this change be induced experimentally?

6. Collins and Allard report the finding that an individual’s attachment style may vary in that individual’s different relationships. Does this lack of consistency weaken the model?

7. Collins and Allard reference the Hazan and Shaver piece in asserting that secure adults were “more likely to think that other people are generally well-intentioned and good-hearted” (64). Is this attitude adaptive? How might it help or hurt individuals with secure attachment styles?

8. Collins and Allard report a finding from Collins and Freeney (2000) in which dyadic interactions were videotaped and later coded and analyzed. Is this method (asking subjects to share a personal problem with their partner while being videotaped) effective? Can it effectively assess a naturalistic, or even realistic interaction?

9. In the Impett et al. article, the authors find “that avoidance does promote sexual goals related to avoiding negative repercussions in one’s relationship” (385). They later report that “engaging in sex to avoid negative outcomes predicted decreased relationship satisfaction and more breakups” (387). Is this behavior adaptive? If these styles lead people to engage in intercourse, even though it is on a shorter term time scale, does that lend support to evolutionary hypotheses? Is it adaptive even though it may ultimately induce a reduced quality of life for the dyadic members?

10. Impett et al., found that gender moderated many of the associations found in their experiment. Do these have to do more with societal pressures and ideals about sex, or more to do with an innate difference between males and females?

11. Locke states that “models of motivation emphasize that different behaviors can meet the same goal and different goals can be met by the same behavior” (371). If this statement holds, what distinguishes different styles of attachment? Furthermore, if each style can produce the same goals or behaviors, how do we qualify which (if?) one of the styles is better or more adaptive than the other two.