International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications October 2012 Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Article: 06 ISSN 1309-6249 Copyright © International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications / www.ijonte.org 67 ATTACHMENT STYLES AS THE PREDICTORS OF CONTACT DISTURBANCES Assist. Prof. Dr. Özlem TAGAY Assist. Prof. Dr. Zeynep KARATAŞ Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Faculty of Education Burdur- TURKEY ABSTRACT The main purpose of the study was to determine if there is a significant predictor of contact disturbances and attachment styles of university students. The study group covered 318 students from Faculty of Education of Mehmet Akif Ersoy University. The data were gathered by using the Contact Disturbances Scale and Relationship Scales Questionary. Relational method was employed in the research. In the analysis of the data, Pearson Moments Multiplying Correlation Coefficient and Progressive Regression Analysis were used. According to the findings, it has been found out that secure, preoccupied, fearful and dismissive attachment styles significantly predict contact, full contact and post-contact disturbances; dismissive and fearful attachment styles significantly predict dependent contact disturbances, while secure and preoccupied attachment styles did not significantly predict dependent contact disturbances. The findings have been discussed in consideration of the literature. Key Words: Gestalt Therapy, Contact disturbances, Attachment styles, University students. INTRODUCTION Human, a social being, has to co-exist with other people around in order to sustain own life and to meet own needs. Thus, human contacts with other people in own environment within a social group. The term “contact” is defined as touch, intercourse, corelate, get in touch and interview (Tagay, 2010). Gestalt therapy is concerned with therapy process, contact, contact disturbances and the awarenesses regarding these. Human contacts by hearing, touching, smelling, seeing, tasting, speaking and moving (Voltan-Acar, 2006). In Gestalt therapy, contact is a significant concept for understanding the individual. According to Laura Perls (1992), contact is the recognition of others, awareness of the differerences and the experience of the edges of I and the other; in other words, it is the sound experience of I and the other (Voltan-Acar, 2006). The fact that contact relationship occurs between I and the other not only expresses another individual but nature, environment and even the individual oneself as well. Contact, which enables organism to grow and learn, can be defined as being attentive to something by oneself or being together with the others. Thus, the concept of contact can not only be experienced between the individual and environment but also be experienced in the form of individual’s contact with oneself (Goldstein, Krasner and Garfield, 1989). Styles of contact are affected by the condition of discerning and rejecting differences. While one form of contact helps growth and development, the other may not… According to Gestalt theory, rather than emotions, how they have been experienced is important. If the figure has not been completed even though it has emanated from the ground. It means that individuals has unfnished buiseness in their emotions, such as resentment, anger, hatred and guiltiness, which have not been revealed yet. Because these emotions are not experienced in fully awareness, they hide in the background and can hamper person’s efficiently establishing relationship with oneself and with the others. The unfnished buiseness carry on until the time when the individual is faced with one’s emotions one cannot explain and one can cope