Certificate of Attachment Style Bureau of Relationships
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Certificate of Attachment Style

to be completed in your own hand

Processing time: 6 min Items: 24

No sign-up. Issued the same day.

This certificate is issued based on a 24-question test and certifies your position on two everyday patterns in closeness: how much you tend to worry about connection, and how comfortable you are relying on someone close. You’ll receive one of four attachment patterns, plus the reasoning behind it, in about 6 minutes. The scoring follows a well-established two-dimension approach from attachment research.

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You need to bring up something that matters to someone close. How do you approach it?
A close friend offers to help with something you're struggling to finish alone. What do you do?
Describe your general sense, day to day, of whether people close to you care as much as you do.
Someone close wants to have a long talk about feelings. How do you handle it?
A reply from someone close comes later than it usually does. What happens in your head?
A personal problem comes up. What's your default first move?
Something small happens — an odd look, a comment that could mean two things. What do you do next?
Things are going well with someone close. How much of what you're really feeling gets shared?
You need a favor from someone close. What holds you back, if anything?
Practical help is offered on something you're dealing with. What's your reaction?
Nothing unusual is happening in a close relationship right now. Where does your mind go?
Someone close asks, more than once, how you're really feeling. What happens the second time?
Someone close sounds flatter or more clipped than usual. How much does that register with you?
A worry comes up. Does someone close hear about it before or after you've worked it out?
How often do you ask someone close, directly, whether things are okay between you?
Something's really on your mind. How soon does it come out when someone close asks what's going on?
You need to admit a mistake to someone close. What's your approach?
In general, how do you feel about leaning on people close to you for support?
It's quiet, maybe right before sleep, and your mind is unoccupied. Where does it go?
A problem you thought was settled gets brought up again for another look. How do you feel about that?
Someone close starts reaching out first less often than before. How much does that stay with you?
You're stuck on something. How readily do you ask someone close for advice?
Plans with someone close are left vague, with nothing confirmed. What do you do?
Things have been calm and steady with someone close for a while now. How much do you open up?

The certificate will be issued in this name. Leave it blank to issue it to the bearer.

About This Certificate

This test measures two patterns in how you handle closeness: how much you worry about a close relationship's stability, and how comfortable you are relying on someone close.

Test author Editorial Staff

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Attachments

Attachment 1. Methodology

This test looks at closeness along two separate lines rather than sorting people into one box. One line has to do with worry — how alert you stay to small signs that someone close might be pulling back, and how much reassurance you tend to need along the way. The other has to do with independence — whether you'd rather work through things on your own or bring them to someone close. Crossing the two gives one of four broad patterns.

Landing near the middle on either line is common, and it doesn't mean the test missed something; most people show some pull in both directions rather than sitting at one extreme. The result describes how you generally show up in close relationships, not the condition of any single one, and it says nothing about compatibility with a particular person. One combination here gets studied in early-childhood research under a more clinical name, but the version measured from an adult's own answers is a lighter, everyday pattern, not that.

This is a descriptive pattern, not a diagnosis. For a short definition of the term itself, see the American Psychological Association's entry on attachment style.

Attachment 2. Frequently Asked Questions

How accurate is an attachment style quiz?

Accuracy here works differently than it would for a lab measurement: you're reading your own patterns back to yourself, not being scored against an outside standard. The four-way result is meant to get you noticing how you tend to handle closeness, not to settle anything about you for good.

What are the four attachment styles?

Psychologists generally describe four broad adult patterns: secure, anxious-preoccupied, dismissive-avoidant, and fearful-avoidant. They come from crossing two underlying tendencies — how much you worry about connection, and how comfortable you are relying on someone close — rather than four separate, unrelated boxes.

How long does this quiz take, and how many questions does it have?

This version runs 24 questions about your close relationships in general, and takes about 6 minutes to complete.

Can your attachment style change over time?

Yes. A self-report like this reflects where you are now, shaped by recent experience and by the relationships currently in your life, not a fixed label assigned for good. A different result later isn't a contradiction; it's a snapshot taken again.

Attachment 3. References
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 511–524. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.3.511.
  4. Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.