beyond the borders of reality attachment orientations and.pdfVIP

Personal Relationships , 14 (2007), 321–342. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright 2007 IARR. 1350-4126=07 Beyond the borders of reality: Attachment orientations and sexual fantasies GURIT E. BIRNBAUM Bar-Ilan University Abstract Two studies examined the associations between attachment orientations and sexual fantasies. In Study 1, 176 partici- pants completed a sexual fantasy checklist. The findings indicated that attachment anxiety was associated with fre- quent sexual fantasizing (e.g., submission themes). More anxiously attached women were particularly likely to report extrapair fantasies, whereas more anxiously attached men were especially likely to report romantic fantasies. Attachment avoidance was negatively associated with romantic themes, primarily among men. In Study 2, 115 par- ticipants described a sexual fantasy in narrative form. Findings paralleled those of Study 1, with the exception that the avoidant effects were more pronounced in women’s sexual fantasies than in men’s. Implications for understand- ing the interplay of the attachment and sexual behavior systems are discussed. The attachment and sexual systems are distinc- a unique and potentially revealing aspect of tive systems that serve different evolutionary the sexual system. goals (protection from danger by maintaining proximity to a caregiver vs. gene reproduction Attachment orientations and the construal of by sexual intercourse, respectively; Bowlby, sexual interactions 1969/1982). Their behavioral manifestations may therefore occur in isolation (e.g., sexual According to Bowlby’s (1969/1982, 1973) relations may occur without affectional bond- attachment theory, human infants have evolved ing; Diamond, 2003; Fisher, 1998; Fisher, to maintain proximity to their c