Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate how adult attachment styles and factors are related with personality characteristics and stress coping strategies. For the purpose, literature review about the concept of adult attachment and the survey of 433 university students on the adult attachment with its relative factors were carried out. The results of the research are as follows : The secure attachment style obtained higher score in confidence factor and personality characteristics of activity, stability, and sociability than three insecure attachment styles. And the secure attachment style had lower tendency in neurosis, psychosis and antisocial behavior. When the secure style was confronted with the stress, she or he sought for the social support and used the problem solving strategy. Otherwise, the insecure attachment styles- dismissing, preoccupied, and fearful- showed the lower score in confidence and sociability, and they had high probability in neurosis and psychosis although three insecure styles responses were different from one anther respects. In the insecure styles, avoidance was their major stress coping strategy. Finally, the implications of these results to counseling and psychotherapy were discussed.