Attachment:Influence of early attachment

Question 1

What did Bowlby suggest early attachment provides?

What effect does this have?

What does the continuity hypothesis say about the effect of early attachment?

Answer 1

a template for later relationships-Internal Working Model
-the child forms a schema of their first attachment

-it affects later relationships and the childs own success as a parent

-it sees a childs attachment type being reflected in their later relationships

Question 2

Influence on childhood relationships:
Which 2 people did studies that provide evidence for the influence on childhood relationships?

Answer 2

Kerns 1994
Myron-Wilson and Smith 1998

Question 3

What did Kerns 1994 find?

Answer 3

they found securely attached infants have high quality childhood relationships and insecurely attached infants had friendship difficulties in childhood

Question 4

What did Myron-Wilson and Smith 1998 do and find?

Answer 4

Procedure-gave questionaire to 196 children aged 7-11 based on attachment type and experiences of bullying
Findings-
Secure-unlikely to be bullied/be a bully
Avoidant-more likely to be bullied
Resistant-more likely to bully
suggests bullying behaviour can be predicted by early attachment type

Question 5

Influence on adult relationships:
Who did a study that found evidence for the influence on adult relationships?

Answer 5

Hazan and Schaver 1987

Question 6

What did Hazan and Schaver do , find and conclude?

Answer 6

Procedure-published a love quiz in local paper in USA
they collected info about early attachment experiences and current romantic attitudes and experiences
they got 620 replies between age 14 and 82
Findings-
56% of adults were securely attached
25% were insecure avoidant
19% were insecure resistant which matched the findings of Ainsworth’s SS
Conclusion-there is a correlation between early attachment type and adult relationships

Question 7

What 4 adult attachment styles did Hazan and Schaver relate to early attachment types?

Answer 7

secure
anxious preoccupied
dismissive avoidant
fearful avoidant

Question 8

Secure adult attachment-
What infant attachment type does it relate to and what are the adult characteristics of this attachment type?

Answer 8

secure
find it easy to become emotionally close to people

Question 9

Anxious preoccupied attachment-
What infant attachment type does it relate to and what are the adult characteristics of this attachment type?

Answer 9

insecure resistant
want to become emotionally close to people but doubt whether people want a relationship with them

Question 10

Dismissive avoidant attachment-
What infant attachment type does it relate to and what are the adult characteristics of this attachment type?

Answer 10

insecure avoidant
view close relationships as having little importance

Question 11

Fearful avoidant attachment-
What infant attachment type does it relate to and what are the adult characteristics of this attachment type?

Answer 11

insecure avoidant
feel uncomfortable getting close to people

Question 12

What is a weakness of research into the influence of early attachment?

Answer 12

-questionaires as a research method
they rely on respondents being honest and having a realistic view of their relationship
the data is also gained retrospectively and its hard to remember early attachment accurately which limits validity of findings

Question 13

What are two further weaknesses of research into the influence of early attachment?

Answer 13

-research is correlational
cannot conclude that early attachment causes differences in later relationships

-research is deterministic
there are negative implications of assuming that an insecure attachment in infancy will badly impact later relationships as people will feel they have no control over their future