It's all about relationships: the role of adult attachment style and locus of control in predicting aggression and the likelihood of a person accommodating and reacting constructively to perceived negative events in intimate relationships.

The aim of this review was to examine research investigating links between adult attachment style and conflict resolution in intimate relationships. A relationship has been demonstrated between these variables in the research literature, but a critique of the methodology employed to gather such data, consideration of clinical implications from a clinical psychology and mental health perspective, and recommendations for future research has not been presented in a structured, systematically generated review, which is what this review report sets out to do. In May 2018 seven databases were searched and a hand search undertaken, which resulted in nine papers for review once inclusion and exclusion criteria had been applied. All papers were quantitative in design, with exploration of the relationship between adult attachment style and conflict resolution in intimate relationships, as main areas of focus. The evidence consistently suggests that those individuals who have a more secure attachment style demonstrate more displays of positive behaviour, less displays of negatively construed behaviour, use more mutually focussed conflict resolution strategies, and report having increased confidence in resolving conflict. For example, those participants with a more insecure attachment orientation demonstrated less of these behaviours, however there was some variation in the results with regards to the type of insecure attachment these results applied to. For example, those with a more secure attachment orientation demonstrated more positively perceived behaviour, compared to those categorised as having a dismissing or preoccupied attachment. Clinical implications and future research recommendations are discussed.