Toward a Psychology of Singlehood: An Attachment-Theory Perspective on Long-Term Singlehood

The number of people who remain single for long periods of time is sizeable and growing in the Western world, yet they are largely ignored in psychological theory and research. In this article, we review psychological and sociological evidence that long-term singles are a heterogeneous group of individuals, outline an attachment-theoretical model of long-term singlehood, and review direct and indirect empirical evidence suggestive of at least three distinct subgroups of long-term singles: (a) singlehood due to attachment-system deactivation, (b) singlehood due to attachment-system hyperactivation, and (c) singlehood as a secure personal choice. Our aim is to highlight long-term singles as a population that merits scientific study and to provide a foundation on which future research can build.