#i did gcse psychology and am currently doing a level so im not just making this all up i swear

[keyboard-smashed]

Attachment styles in the sanders sides

This is probably gonna be quite long so sorry xx

I'm learning about attachment styles in psych and it made me think about sanders sides and the relationships between them (platonic or romantic as theorised by us 🖤) so very briefly here's the 3 types

1. Healthy- you trust the people in your life won't abandon you and like if someone doesn't reply to you quickly you come up with a rational explanation why and don't stress too much (like 50% of adults are like this even though I personally think it sounds absurd)

2. Anxious- you can be very clingy and need constant reassurance that they're not gonna leave you

3. Avoidance- they were probably humiliated in a past relationship/from care givers for needing assurance and now they act like they don't care about relationships. They may want contact/ reassurance but don't want to put themselves out there/ pretend like they don't care too much out of fear of rejection or humiliation

Now as soon as I read about avoidance I was like oh hey that's Logan

Then I was thinking about anxious and hey look, Patton?

And since I'm am avid logicality shipper I was curious how people with different attachment styles work in a relationship and it can go two ways SO

1. They balance each other in a nice equilibrium- avoidant may be afraid to ask for reassurance and the other may be more than willing to share their feelings

Orrrrrrr

2. Disaster- the needs of both ppl escalate. Anxious person needs assurance the avoidant can't give & avoidant needs security the anxious can't give

The avoidant may want complete monogamy to a level that's just not realistic. Like they may be happy with just sitting around the house all day but the anxious person needs more people around and can't do that a lot. But those other people could be seen as a threat by the avoidant

And I was thinking about Virgil & Roman too (because prinxiety is ♥️💜♥️💜♥️💜)

Roman needs constant assurance and doesn't always believe they care about him (see: the puzzle song & every episode of sanders sides ever) so he's probably the anxious type

And Virgil I see as avoidant. I know he's the literal embodiment of anxiety so it'd make sense if he had an anxious type of attachment and like he miGht but I think his attachment style is mainly avoidant but he has anxious attachment tendencies due to, well, being anxiety.

At the start when he's first introduced he's a real loner and he pushes them all away by acting scary and pretending he doesn't need their friendship and if that's not an avoidant attachment thing then idk what is

Over time he's opened up more and said his needs which is damn impressive so by some strange twist of events he may be the healthiest of all of them in that respect

Anyway the dynamic works the same way in logicality as prinxiety but Logan seems to be a more extreme version of avoidance than Virgil & Roman a more extreme anxious one than Patton

Since my form of attachment is pretty anxious, I think that's why I prefer prinxiety over logicality but ANYWAY

Now I understand more the appeal of royality or analogical as they seem to cope more similarly which is a nice dynamic that I never really thought much into before

And I also get (oh god what's the ship name for Logan and Roman, uhhhhh) roboprince (im trying ok) and moxiety

Also may explain whey Patton and Virgil get a long so well despite (in my opinion) them having different attachment styles. I think Patton reassures Virgil enough even though Virgil set his boundaries

And it could also explain whey Logan and Roman don't get along too well a lot of the time as they're more extreme versions of each style (which makes sense because they represent the left and right side of the brain so are complete opposites). They are more extreme than Patton and Virgil so it makes sense they fall into the second type of relationship most of the time since everything is heightened (not saying this is always the case irl or with Roman & Logan but I'm just saying it's harder for them to get along because they don't give each other what they need lots of the time)

(also I just noticed I put all the left sided brain ppl as avoidant and vice versa which is kinda interesting)

With the dark sides I'm not entirely sure as we don't see as much relationship building as we do with the original 4 but deceit, as the embodiment of lying, seems to me like an avoidant type and Remus... Frankly I have no idea what's going on with him

Idk if any of this is purposeful or not by Thomas & the gang and idk if it's cooler if it was purposeful or accidental but it's just a cool detail either way

But yeah I just think that's a cool thing for fic writers to think about and this may have all been complete nonsense but I find it interesting sooooo

My info about the attachment styles was all printed and didn't say where it was from but a lot of quotes were from someone called Dr Hunter, and there was also some research done into toddlers attachment styles (children playing alone without parents may seem confident and independent but actually feel very high levels of anxiety) and it's really interesting so if anyone wants more info I can try dig up the article but rn I cba sorry

now you may go back to your regularly scheduled dashboard sorry for the huge post, have a great day 🖤