Attachment - The Influence of Early Attachment on later relationships

Question 1

What is Bowlby’s Internal Working Model?

Answer 1

• Bowlby suggested that attachment to a primary attachment figure provides a child with a mental representation of this relationship (internal working model), which acts as a template for future relationships. Therefore, the quality of a child’s first attachment is crucial.
• This leads to the continuity hypothesis, which suggests that later relationships are likely to be a continuation of early attachment types.
• A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver (securely attached) will assume relationships are meant to be that way. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them, without being too uninvolved or emotionally close (insecure-avoidant) or being controlling and argumentative (insecure-resistant).
• This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place or may not behave appropriately when they have them (both friends and partners).

Question 2

Relationships in later childhood

Answer 2

• Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood: securely attached infants go on to form the best quality friendships while insecurely attached infants struggle and have friendship difficulties.
• Securely attached children were rated highest for social competence later in childhood, were less isolated, more popular and more empathetic. This can be explained in terms of the internal working model because securely attached infants have higher expectations that others are friendly and trusting, and this would enable easier relationships with other.
• Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998) found that insecure-avoidant infants are most likely to be bullied while insecure-resistant infants are most likely to be bullies (questionnaire to 196 children aged 7-11 from London)
• Bailey et al.’s 2007 study supports this by finding that a majority of women had the same attachment type as their babies and their own mothers

Question 3

Relationships in adulthood with romantic partners

Answer 3

• McCarthy (1999) studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type. Those assessed as securely attached infants had the best adult friendships and adult relationships.
• Adults classified as insecure-resistant as infants had particular problems maintaining friendships, whilst those classed as insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.

Question 4

Relationships in adulthood with romantic partners - Hazan and Shaver 1987

Answer 4

Hazan and Shaver (1987) were interested in John Bowlby’s idea that an infant’s first attachment formed an internal working model - a template - for all future relationships. They wanted to see if there was a correlation between the infant’s attachment type and their future approach to romantic relationships. They analysed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz was in 3 sections: current or most important relationship, general love experiences e.g. number of partners, and attachment type. They found:

• 56% were securely attached, 25% insecure-avoidant, and 19% insecure-resistant.
• They found a positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences.
• Secure attachments were most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic experiences.
• Insecure-avoidant tended to reveal jealous and fear of intimacy.
• Insecure-resistants tended to fall in love easily but found it difficult to find true love.
• These findings suggest that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in adult romantic relationships.

Main issues - unconscious bias + how memory may not be reliable therefore results won’t be valid, results are an association and not cause and effect, self-report is inaccurate sometimes especially with preconceived ideas about their own attachment

Question 5

Relationships in adulthood as a parent

Answer 5

• People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model, so attachment type tends to be passed through generations of a family. Bailey et al. (2007) considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers.
• Mother-infant attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation and mother-own mother attachment was assessed using an adult attachment interview. The majority of women had the same attachment type as their babies and own mothers.

Question 6

How early attachment affects adult relationships - flow diagram

Answer 6

Attachment with parents -> relationship with peers -> later romantic relationships

Question 7

The issue with the internal working model theory

Answer 7

It is a very deterministic idea and does not allow for agency and free will - it states parental attachment has a fixed effect on adult relationships and therefore theorises that insecurely attached children are doomed. This weakens the theory, as therapy etc can be used to heal or reconstruct the internal working model.

Question 8

Evaluating studies - attachment effect on later relationships, weaknesses

Answer 8

1. The research suggests that very early experiences have a fixed effect on later adult relationships, and therefore children who are insecurely attached as infants are doomed to experience emotionally unsatisfactory relationships as adults. This is overly determinist.
   - This is contradicted by evidence to suggest that insecurely attached children can form good relationships through therapies and for those raised in institutional settings
2. There is a theoretical problem with most research related to the internal working model. Internal working models are unconscious so we are not directly aware of their influence on us. We would not really expect to get direct evidence about them by means of interviews or questionnaires because people can only self-report what they are aware of. When participants self-report on their relationships they are relying on their conscious understanding of those relationships.
   - Therefore, the results may struggle to have good internal validity, and the evidence is only indirect and correlative, rather than secure and causative

Question 9

Evaluating studies - attachment effect on later relationships, weaknesses cont.

Answer 9

3. Many studies assess the quality of infant-parent attachment using self-report techniques years later. This is retrospective – looking back on one’s early relationships in adult may lead to inaccurate recollections. Additionally, they depend on respondents being honest and having a realistic view of their own relationships.
   - This suggests a possible social desirability bias in the research, and not wanting to be given a insecure attachment style as this can have emotional implications and ethical issues with causing a negative view of past relationships based on your given attachment type
4. Studies have found an association between infant attachment type and the quality of later relationships. The implication is that attachment type causes later relationships. However, a third factor such as temperament may affect both infant attachment and the quality of later relationships.
   - This suggests a low internal validity as there may be confounding variables for the conclusion, and the research does not accommodate for these factors

Question 10

Evaluation - undermining research on the internal working model

Answer 10

1. Not all studies support internal working models. Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment types and adolescent attachment to parents. There was very little relationships between the quality of both types of attachment.
   - This suggests that the studies are not entirely externally valid, and that the internal working model is not as irreversible or deterministic or dictating of adult relationships as Bowlby theorised