A- Influence of Early Attachments

Question 1

Who investigated the influence of early attachment on adult relationships?

Answer 1

Hazan and Shaver.
- They designed a test to test the connection between a person’s early attachment style, their internal working model, and their adult attachment style.

Question 2

Describe the procedure of Hazan and Shaver’s experiment.

Answer 2

• Hazan and Shaver placed a ‘Love Quiz’ in an American small-town newspaper.
• The quiz asked questions about their relationship with their parents (to identify early attachment style), attitudes towards love (to assess their internal working model), and their current relationship experiences (to determine their current attachment style).
• They analysed 620 responses, 205 from men and 415 from women, from a fair cross-section of the population.

Question 3

What were the findings of Hazan and Shaver’s experiment?

Answer 3

• When analysing adult attachment they found that the prevalence of adult attachment styles was similar to those found in infants.
• 56% were classified secure, 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant.
• This suggests that most people’s earlyattachment styles are the same as their adult attachment style.
• They also found a positive correlation between adult attachment style and love experiences.
• Securely attached adults described their love experiences as happy, friendly and trusting.
• They emphasised being able to accept and support their partner despite faults.
• These relationships were most enduring –ten years on average compared six years for avoidant and five years for resistant.
• Finally they found a relationship between internal working model and adult attachment style –securely attached individuals tended to have a positive internal working model

Question 4

Evaluate Hazan and Shaver’s experiment. (DISADVANTAGES)

Answer 4

1) This study is correlational rather than experimental and therefore we cannot determine cause and effect.
- It is impossible to say that infantattachments determine adult relationships.
- It could be that there is a third variable that affects both, such as a person’s innate temperament.

2) This study relies on participants’ memories about their early lives in order to assess their infant attachment style.
- Such recollections are likely to be flawed because our memories of the past are not always accurate, making the study not valid.
- Not only this, as the love quiz is a self-reporting technique, pps may show social desirability bias.

Question 5

Who investigated the influence of early attachment on childhood relationships?

Answer 5

Sroufe et al.

• The study was called Minnesota Parent-Child Project.
• It began in 1975 and the mother-child pairs continue to be studied today.

Question 6

Describe the procedure of Sroufe et al’s study.

Answer 6

• Since 1975 the mothers’ and the childrens’ behaviour has been assessed using questionnaires and observations.
• For example, the mothers and children were videotaped (intra-observer reliability) while playing for a period of 10-15 minutes at home.
• The mothers were aware that they were being videotaped (possible social desirability bias).
• Two observers analysed the recordings (inter-observer reliability).

Question 7

Describe the findings of Sroufe et al’s study.

Answer 7

As children, those who were classed as securely attached as infants were:

• rated the highest for social competence
• were less socially isolated,
• were more popular with their peers,
• were more empathetic.
• An infant’s early attachment creates their internal working model of what relationships are, how partners in a relationship behave towards each other and what they should expect of a relationship. - Those who are securely attached will have a positive internal working model for relationships and so are better at forming and maintaining relationships with others.

Question 8

Evaluate Sroufe et al’s study. (ADVANTAGES)

Answer 8

1) This study is reliable.
- Simpson et al. (2007) found similar results; they assessed infant attachment styles at one year of age. Studies have found that children who were securely attached as infants were rated as having higher social competence as children and were closer to their friends aged 16.

Question 9

Evaluate Sroufe et al’s study. (DISADVANTAGES)

Answer 9

1) It claims that children who are insecurely attached as infants are doomed to experience emotionally unsatisfactory relationships as children.
- It is therefore deterministic (does not take account of people’s free will to make conscious decisions about their behaviour).

2) There are lots of studies which contradict the claim that early attachment affects later childhood relationships.
- Tizard and Hodges (1989) found that children raised in care who had never formed any attachments by the age of four, and were then adopted, could still form attachments to their new adopted parents.

Question 10

internal working model

Answer 10

Bowlby proposed the internal working model
The first attachment a child forms provides a template for all future relationships. This is because, based on the first attachment, an infant forms a concept of what to expect out of intimate relationships

This has further led to the development of the continuity hypothesis, which proposes that individuals who are strongly attached during infancy continue to be socially and emotionally competent. Furthermore, those that have difficulties in childhood are more likely to have the same in their adult relationships