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LIT-1979: Within-person variation in security of attachment: A self-determination theory perspective on attachment, need fulfillment, and well-being.

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Properties5
StatusActive — read in full 2026-11-03 (NOTE-1523), from the typeset.io copy of the published article, at the owner's direction. Worth reading as the source of the claim that need satisfaction varies by relationship and predicts attachment security relationship by relationship: most of the variance in attachment is within persons, across partners. Cross-sectional, and the authors say so: the direction is undetermined and probably runs both ways.
Version3
Tagsmotivation, well-being
Cited as “paper” byNOTE-1523 — La Guardia et al. — Within-person variation in security of attachment
Cited as “source” byTHEORY-1345 — In three cross-sectional studies of undergraduates, most of the variance in adult attachment security lay within persons, across relational partners (56–79%, error included), and relationship-specific satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness predicted relationship-specific security in every relationship tested, also with the relatedness items removed; relatedness was the strongest unique predictor, then autonomy, then competence

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La Guardia, J. G., Ryan, R. M., Couchman, C. E., Deci, E. L. (2000). Within-person variation in security of attachment: A self-determination theory perspective on attachment, need fulfillment, and well-being.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(3), 367-384. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.3.367.

Key takeaways

  • Attachment security is mostly relational, not a trait: within-person variance across partners was 56%, 79% and about two thirds in the three studies, with error included.
  • Need satisfaction with a partner predicts security with that partner, in every relationship tested (Table 3, betas .59–.79 for overall security in Study 2).
  • The relatedness items overlap conceptually with security, which the authors handle by repeating every analysis without them; autonomy then predicts most.

Standing in the record

Registered as part of Relationships Motivation Theory’s evidence, which the record held only through Patrick et al. 2007. It bears on QUESTION-369’s interdefinition worry at instrument level: the need most predictive of the outcome is the one closest to it in content (NOTE-1523).

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