How the Attachment Style Test is scored

Attachment style is one of the few relationship ideas with decades of research behind it. This page explains exactly what Wabiro’s quiz borrows from that research, how the result is computed, and where the quiz stops.

Where the idea comes from

Attachment theory began with John Bowlby’s work on how infants stay close to their caregivers (Bowlby, 1969), and Mary Ainsworth’s observations of secure, anxious and avoidant patterns in children (Ainsworth et al., 1978). Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver applied it to adult romance in 1987, describing secure, anxious and avoidant ways of loving. Kim Bartholomew and Leonard Horowitz (1991) added a fourth style — fearful — by crossing two ideas: how people see themselves and how they see others.

Since then, most researchers describe adult attachment with two dimensions rather than boxes: anxiety (worry about rejection, about being loved less, about being left) and avoidance (discomfort with closeness and with depending on others). The best-known questionnaires, such as the Experiences in Close Relationships scale and its revision (Brennan, Clark & Shaver, 1998; Fraley, Waller & Brennan, 2000), measure exactly these two. Wabiro’s quiz is built on the same two dimensions.

The statements

The 20 statements are original to Wabiro. They are not items from the ECR-R or any other published scale, and they have not been through psychometric validation. They describe ordinary moments — a slow reply, an argument, a partner wanting a night alone — so that the quiz works whether or not you are in a relationship.

The last two dimensions come from the idea that, under stress, anxious attachment tends to show up as hyperactivating strategies (checking, following up, needing it settled now) and avoidant attachment as deactivating ones (going quiet, coping alone, cooling off) (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). They make the report concrete; they never change your style.

Each statement is answered from “Not like me at all” (0) to “Very much like me” (3). For the four reversed statements (for example, “I find it easy to lean on someone I’m close to when I’m having a hard time”), the scale is flipped before scoring, so answering “very much like me” to everything does not land you in an extreme.

From answers to a style

Each dimension score is your points divided by the maximum, times 100, to one decimal. Then:

The line at 50 is the midpoint of the scale. It is a convention for naming the region you are in, not a clinical cut-off — which is why the result always shows both numbers and the map, not just the name.

The style you lean toward. Wabiro also looks at the axis closest to the line. The style you would get if that axis fell on the other side is shown as your secondary style; when that axis is within 10 points of the line, the result says you lean that way (for example, “secure, anxious-leaning”). Ties go to anxiety, the first axis.

The overall number the engine computes for every test (a weighted average of the four dimensions) is not shown for this test: blending anxiety with avoidance produces a number that means nothing on its own.

What the report adds

The free result gives your style, both axes on the map, your strengths, what to watch, one action and one sentence to try. The paid report adds what each of your four dimensions means at your level, how the style tends to show up while dating and in conflict, what tends to draw you in and push you away, how it usually goes with each of the four styles in a partner, a seven-day plan and the answers that shaped your result, read back on your device. The pairing notes are tendencies discussed in the research literature, written as conversation starters — never forecasts about a relationship.

What it is not

It is not a diagnosis and not a validated psychological assessment. Attachment style is not a mental-health condition, and a quiz cannot know your history. Research also finds that attachment is fairly stable but can change — with new relationships, life events and deliberate work — so a result describes how you answered today, not who you will always be. If relationships regularly feel painful or frightening, a qualified therapist is a better guide than any quiz.

Your answers stay on your device. If you share your result, only the style travels with it — never your answers or your two scores.

Determinism and versions

The scoring is a pure function: the same answers always produce the same result, on any device, with no randomness and no AI involved. Results record the test version and the scoring version they were computed with, and a paid report is always generated from that exact version.

Sources

• Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and Loss, Vol. 1: Attachment. Basic Books.
• Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Erlbaum.
• Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511–524.
• Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(2), 226–244.
• Brennan, K. A., Clark, C. L., & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrative overview. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment Theory and Close Relationships (pp. 46–76). Guilford Press.
• Fraley, R. C., Waller, N. G., & Brennan, K. A. (2000). An item response theory analysis of self-report measures of adult attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(2), 350–365.
• Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2007). Attachment in Adulthood: Structure, Dynamics, and Change. Guilford Press.