This study is an expansion on the initially formulated attachment theory by John Bowlby (1980). As compared to the previous literature in this realm, this research aimed at analyzing the impact of attachment on friendship and coping behavior of individuals which have not been extensively addressed by other studies in depth. This is because of the underlying fact that there are many studies which focus on analyzing the impact of attachment style on romantic relationships whereas there are very few elaborate studies which emphasize on assessing the impact of attachment on friendship and coping. For this purpose, this study does not only focus on this notion, but it also aimed at analyzing the mediating role of friendship when it comes to the association between attachment and coping of an individual.
Therefore, the variables of this study are as followsIndependent variable: attachment styleDependant variables: coping behavior, friendshipIntervening variable: friendshipModerating variable: gender Since the data for this study is collected through a questionnaire, the statistical software known as SPSS along with MS Excel would be used to analyze the data and hence interpret the result. The questionnaire has been designed in a way that it assesses each variable on a 5 point likert scale which tells the likelihood/frequency of an opinion/outcome/experience. Although a questionnaire has also been used in this study, the research is mainly a quantitative study as large data is collected so that it can be easily generalized. Hence interviews have been used to further verify the responses obtained from the questionnaire. For this reason, the interview responses can be first analyzed through the process of typology and taxonomy (Turner, 2010).
This is an accurate process of analyzing interview responses as it will help target the exact required data, help in tracing out differences and similarities and filter out unwanted/ incomplete data. This is similar to the process of coding the questionnaires. Hence, once the process of typology and taxonomy is completed, the method of constant comparison can be used to analyze and interpret the interview responses. This is one of the appropriate techniques of analyzing interview responses as it will help look at the differences between the data obtained from different participants and draw out various themes and trends that will help in generalizing the results in accordance with the segments of society. Therefore, this interview analysis could be combined with the analysis and interpretation of questionnaires and then can be documented collectively under the discussion heading (Turner, 2010).
Once the questionnaire has been coded for its different sections, the data would be entered in numeric in Ms Excel. Once this step is achieved, the coded data would then be moved to an SPSS file where it’s variable and data view would be filled accordingly. After this, a number of steps can be processed to analyze data. This would be done with the help of descriptive statistics which would specifically be applied to demographic questions as it will help look at the mean, median, mode, standard deviation of the data. Frequencies would also be used and applied for different sections in order to have a detailed view about each variable (Imai, 2008). To make the results more specific and accurate, the different statements of each variable would be grouped together and the mean of every variable would also be found on SPSS.
After this, correlation, cross-tabulation and regression would be used to have elaborate knowledge to analyze the results. Since the study aims at finding the impact of attachment on friendship and coping, the use of correlation would be important in finding as to how strongly or weakly be the variables associated with each other. Moreover, cross tabulation will help in analyzing the relationship between demographics (example gender) and different variables. Hypothesis would be tested using regression via the value of alpha. This is one of the best ways to accept/reject null hypothesis and hence test it in order to proceed with the actual findings. Also, regression analysis would help in assessing the way in which one variable causes/predicts change in another variable. In this way, the objective of the research which is measuring the impact of attachment on friendship and coping would be achieved (Imai, 2008).
REFERENCES
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Sadness and depression. New York: Basic Books. Print.
Imai, K. (2008). Toward A Common Framework for Statistical Analysis and Development. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 17(4), pp: 1–22
Turner, D. (2010). Qualitative Interview Design: A Practical Guide for Novice Investigators. The Qualitative Report, 15(3), pp: 754-760
