THE EVALUATION OF MARRIED INDIVIDUALS’ METAPHOR PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE CONCEPTS “FAMILY” AND “MARRIAGE” IN TERMS OF THE ATTACHMENT STYLES
The aim of this study is to reveal married individuals’ perception they have towards “family” and “ marriage”concepts through metaphors and evaluate according to the styles of individuals. A total of 122 married individuals including 65 women (%53) and 57(%47) men from different professions and age groups participated the study. In gathering the data of the study an interview form consisting married indiviuals' sentences as "Family is like........., because ............." , "Marriage is like ................., because ...................." and " Relationship Questionnare" were used to determine attachment styles adopted by Sümer and Güngör (1999).As a qualitative research phenemonology design is used in this study. The collected data are analyzed and interpreted by content analysis technique. Married individuals who participated the research reported 78 different metaphors for the concept of “family” and 82 for “marriage”. It has beendetermined that 47 of married individuals show Secure Attachment, 26 Anxious Attachment, 29 Dismissive Avoidant Attachment, and 20 Obsessive Attachment Styles. An evaluation made under nine categories relating to the metahpors developed in “family” concept, and ten categories realting to “ marriage”. While “Togetherness and Devotion” category is evaluated with 48 metaphors towards “marriage” concept, “Trust and Protection” category categorised 69 metaphors towards “family” concept. The results were interpreted by considering the characteristics of the participants and the recommendations were presented.

Keywords
Metaphors, family, marriage, attachment, attachment styles