Attachment And Later Relationships Flashcards
Who proposed the internal working model?
Bowlby (1969)
What is the internal working model?
A mental representation of the baby’s relationships with their primary attachment figure. This acts as a template for future relationships.
If a child has a living first relationship with a reliable caregiver they will have loving future relationships, and if a child has a poor first relationship they will have further poor relationships in the future.
Studies into attachment and childhood relationships
Kerns (1994):
- securely attached children had the best quality friendships
- insecurely attached children had friendship issues.
Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998):
- gave questionnaires to children aged 7-11
- securely attached babies were unlikely to be involved in bullying.
- Insecure-avoidant babies likely to be bullying victims.
- Insecure-resistant children were most likely to be the bullies.
Studies into attachment and adult relationships
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Findings
Hazan and Shaver (1987)
- published love quiz in newspaper
- secure infants had happy lasting relationships.
- insecure infants found adult relationships more difficult and were more likely to divorce.
McCarthy (1990)
- assessed 40 women for attachment type
- secure babies had best relationships
- insecure-resistant had difficulty maintaining relationships
- insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in marriage
Zimmerman et al (2000)
- studied group of children in Germany
- found that childhood attachment didn’t predict attachment in adulthood
- life events had more of an effects
Rutter, Quinton and Hill (1999)
- found group of people with poor relationships with parents but who had achieved stable romantic relationships
Studies into attachment and relationships as a parents
Bailey et al (2007)
- mothers who had poor attachments to their own primary attachment figures were more likely to have poorly attached babies
Evaluative points for attachment and later relationships
- Strength - supporting evidence
- Limitation - not all evidence supports link between attachment and later relationships
- Limitation - alternative explanation; temperament hypothesis
Strength - supporting evidence
There is a vast amount so supporting evidence for the link between infant attachment and later relationships. For example, McCarthy (1990) assessed 40 women as infants to see their attachment type and found that later in life those who were securely attached had the best romantic relationships, those who were insecure-resistant had difficulty maintains relationships and those who were insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships. These findings support the predictions of the IWM; that attachment type in infancy has an influence on the stability of later relationships and this increases our confidence in its validity.
Limitation - opposing evidence
However, not all evidence supports the existence of close links between early attachment type and the nature of future relationships. Rutter, Quinton and Hill (1999) found a group of people who had problematic relationships with their parents but who had achieved stable and secure romantic relationships. Zimmerman (2000) studied a group of children in Germany and found that there was very little relationships between the quality of infant attachment and attachment in adulthood. Instead, life events (such as loss of a parent or parents divorce) had a greater effect on security of later relationships. Similarly, the Regensburg longitudinal study which followed 43 individuals from age 1-16 found no evidence of continuity . These inconsistent findings decrease the validity of the IWM and theory of continuity and also limit our understanding of the effects of childhood attachment; as a result more research is required.
Limitation - alternative explanation
Moreover, there is an alternative explanation for continuity in relationships; the temperament hypothesis. This argues that’s an infants temperament affects the way a caregiver responds to them and so it may be a determining factor in attachment type. This would also explain the issues that infant encounters in later relationships (those with more calm temperaments would have better relationships and those who are perhaps more hot tempered would struggle with relationships). This discredits the IWM and therefore limits the validity of its predictions. Again, more research is needed to provide a holistic explanation as to why there is continuity in attachment.
