The Bielefeld attachment questionnaires: overview and empirical results of an alternative approach to assess attachment

The Bielefeld Client Expectations Questionnaire and the Bielefeld Partnership Expectations Questionnaire are two parallel German language self-report tools of adult attachment. The Bielefeld questionnaires are different from others in two important ways: (a) Attachment patterns are operationalized as configurations of scale scores, which allow qualitative distinctions in terms of functioning; and (b) five empirically identified attachment patterns are distinguished. A partially-secure pattern is described for the first time. Both instruments yield good psychometric properties, and the current results support their validity. The aim of the present article is to inform an international audience about an original approach for assessing attachment and to encourage its adaptation and standardization in other languages.