11. the effects of early attachment on later relationships Flashcards
INTERNAL WORKING MODEL
Bowlby suggested that a baby’s first relationship with their primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation of this relationship.
This internal working model acts as a template for future childhood and adult relationships.
The quality of a baby’s first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships.
A baby whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure will tend to assume
this is how relationships are meant to be. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them, without being too uninvolved or emotionally close (which would typify insecure-avoidant attachment) or being controlling and argumentative (insecure-resistant attachment)
A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to bear on later relationships. This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place, or they may not behave appropriately within relationships, displaying insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant behaviour towards friends and partners.
RELATIONSHIPS IN CHILDHOOD
Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood.
Securely attached babies tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached babies later have friendship difficulties.
In particular, bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type.
Wilson and Smith
assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London.
Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying.
Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies
RELATIONSHIPS IN ADULTHOOD
Internal working models affect two major adult experiences - romantic relationships and parental relationships with your own children.
Hazan and Shaver conducted a study of the association between attachment and adult relationships.
PROCEDURE -
They analysed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz had three sections. The first assessed respondents’ current or most important relationship. The second part assessed general love experiences such as number of partners. The third section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of three statements best described their feelings.
RELATIONSHIPS IN ADULTHOOD
HAZAN AND SHAVER - LOVE QUIZ
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
- 56% of respondents were identified as securely attached, with 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant.
- Those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer-lasting romantic experiences.
- The avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy.
These findings suggest that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships.
RELATIONSHIPS IN ADULTHOOD
McCarthy studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were babies to establish their early attachment type.
Those assessed as securely attached babies had
the best adult friendships and romantic relationships.
Adults classed as insecure-resistant as babies had particular problems maintaining friendships whilst those classed and insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.
CONTIUNITY HYPOTHESIS
Internal working models also affect the child’s ability to parent their own children. People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model, so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family. Bailey et al.
procedure and findings
considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers. Mother-baby attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation and mothers’ attachment to their own mother was assessed using an adult attachment interview. The majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers.
this supports the continuity hypothesis
CHILDHOOD
AO3: strength of EFFECTS OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON LATER RELATIONSHIPS
supporting evidence
One strength of the research into attachment and later relationships is supporting evidence.
Reviews of such evidence have concluded that early attachment consistently predicts later attachment, emotional well-being, and attachment to own children. How strong the relationship is between early attachment type and later development depends both on the attachment type and the aspect of later development. So, whilst insecure-avoidant attachment seems to convey fairly mild disadvantages for any aspect of development, disorganised attachment is strongly associated with later mental disorder.
This means that secure attachment as a baby appears to convey advantages for future development while disorganised attachment appears to seriously disadvantage children.
AO3: limitation of EFFECTS OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON LATER RELATIONSHIPS
confounding variables
A further limitation of studies into the influence of early attachment on later development is the existence of confounding variables.
Some studies do assess attachment in infancy, which means that the assessment of early attachment is valid. However, even these studies may have validity problems because associations between attachment quality and later development may be affected by confounding variables. For example, parenting style may influence both attachment quality and later development.
Alternatively, genetically influenced personality may be an influence on both factors.
This means that we can never be entirely sure that it is early attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development.
AO3: limitation of EFFECTS OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON LATER RELATIONSHIPS
assessed retrospectively
One limitation of most research into the influence of attachment is that early attachment is assessed retrospectively.
Most research on the link between early attachment and later development are not longitudinal - they don’t assess attachment in early life and then revisit the same person later in life. Instead, researchers usually ask adolescent or adult participants questions about their relationship with parents and identify attachment type from this. This causes two validity problems. First, asking questions relies on the honesty and accurate perception of the participants. Second, it means it is very hard to know whether what is being assessed is early attachment or in fact adult attachment.
This means that the measures of early attachment used in most studies may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless.
