Some of life’s most intense emotions are experienced within close relationships. Berscheid and Reis (1998) have claimed that identifying the origins and the profile of emotions experienced within a relationship is essential if one wants to really understand its most important features. Given this reality, one might expect that a great deal would be known about the experience and express of emotions in close relationships, particularly how relationship experiences at critical stages of social development forecast the type and intensity of emotions that are experienced in adult attachment relationships. Surprisingly little, however, is known about these issues.

In this chapter, we use attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980) and attachment constructs as organizing frameworks to fill these crucial conceptual and empirical gaps in our knowledge emotions in close relationships. After reviewing relevant theory and research on this topic, we discuss the findings of a recent longitudinal study that has continuously tracked the same sample of individuals from birth into early adulthood.