Attachment Styles and Emotions: Anxiety Tied to Anger, Avoidance to Calm

Anxious and avoidant attachment both went with feeling helpless in a new study of Turkish undergraduate students, but they parted ways on other feelings¹. In this look at attachment styles and emotions, attachment anxiety was linked to anger. Attachment avoidance was linked to feeling calm.

The findingWhat Did the Study Find About Attachment Styles and Emotions?

Both insecure styles shared one feeling, helplessness, but split on another: anxiety went with anger, and avoidance went with calm.

Attachment anxiety means worrying about rejection and wanting a lot of reassurance from the people you're close to. Attachment avoidance means feeling uneasy with closeness and leaning on yourself instead. The study looked at both, along with the feelings students reported.

The paper's title also names hopelessness. The abstract, though, reports results only for helplessness, anger and calm. The authors are Sevginar Vatan of Hacettepe University in Ankara and David Lester of Stockton University in New Jersey.

The calm result stands out. Avoidance is often described as keeping feelings at a distance, and here it went with calm rather than anger. Still, avoidance was also linked to helplessness, just as anxiety was.

Your styleHow Can You Find Your Attachment Style?

Our attachment style quiz is a simple first step, showing which pattern your answers lean toward. You can also see how you handle feelings with the emotional intelligence test, and read our story on emotional intelligence and life satisfaction.

For your wider personality, try the personality test or browse the 16 personality types. If feeling helpless lasts or gets in the way of daily life, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional.