These scales were originally presented by Brennan‚ Shaver & Hazan (1989) but not published in print until included in a later article (Brennan & Shaver‚ 1995).  The authors cr‎eated these scales by conducting a large scale‚ oblique factor analysis of 143 individual items‚ that resulted in 34 factors with eigenvalues greater than one.  Seven of the factors were se‎lected as ha‎ving sufficient items to each form a 10-item sub-scale with adequate internal reliability. The seven factors were titled:

All items were measured on 7-point Likert-type scales ranging from "disagree strongly" to "agree strongly".  The following two of the seven sub-scales are extracted from Brennan & Shaver (1995).

Notes: (R) indicates reverse scored item.

During their study‚ Brennan & Shaver (1995) compared scores from this scale with attachment style measured using the Adult Attachment Questionnaire. They found the following relationships:

Attachment Style	Positive Correlations	Negative Correlations
Avoidant	Frustration with partners  Self-reliance  Ambivalence	Trust / confidence in others  Proximity seeking
Anxious/Ambivalent	Frustration with partners  Jealousy / fear of abandonment  Anxious clinging to partners	Trust / confidence in others
Secure	Trust / confidence in others  Proximity seeking	Frustration with partners  Self-reliance  Ambivalence  Jealousy / fear of abandonment  Anxious clinging to partners

Adapted from Brennan & Shaver‚ 1995

Discriminant function analysis using all seven scales was used to categorise participants and this was compared with their self-report classification using the Hazan and Shaver measure. The two resulting discriminant functions correctly predicted the attachment style of 72.3% of participans. These functions separated out the secure from the avoidant participants and then separated out the anxious/ambivalent participants.

Factor analysis was conducted on the seven sub-scales using principal axis extraction.  Two factors emerged which accounted for 71.3% of the variance and correlated at only r = 0.05.  Based on the contributing items‚ these factors were labelled 'insecurity‚' which distinguished avoidant from secure participants‚ and 'preoccupation with attachment‚' which distinguished anxious/ambivalent from secure participants.