Early Attachment and Adult Relationships

Question 1

What is the internal working model?

Answer 1

A child having their first relationship with their primary attachment figure forms a mental representation of this relationship and acts as a template for future relationships. Therefore the quality of the child’s first attachment is crucial because it will affect the nature of their future relationships

Question 2

Who investigated the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships?

Answer 2

Zimmerman

Question 3

What did Zimmerman do and find?

Answer 3

He assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. There was very little relationship between the quality of these two relationships which is not what you would expect if an internal working model existed

Question 4

What two things were found about childhood relationships?

Answer 4

1. Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood. Securely attached infants tend to go on to for, the best quality childhood friendships where insecurely attached infants later have friendship difficulties
2. Children who form attachments to each other in early life will not generally go on to form adult sexual relationships with each other

Question 5

Who conducted the first study to support childhood relationships?

Answer 5

Youngblade and Belsky

Question 6

What did Youngblade and Belsky do and find?

Answer 6

Found that 3-5 year old securely attached children were more curious, competent, rsillient and self confident got along better with other children and were more likely to form close friendships which suggests that there is continuity between early attachment styles and the quality of childhood relationships

Question 7

Who conducted the second piece of research to support childhood relationships?

Answer 7

Westermarck

Question 8

What did Westermarck do and find?

Answer 8

Reported that children who form close friendships in the first six years of life do not generally go on to for, adult sexual relationships with each other, which suggests early attachments do affect childhood and adult relationships

Question 9

What is a limitation of childhood relationships?

Answer 9

The quality of later relationships as being caused solely by the quality of early attachments is somewhat deterministic. It is likely that other factors are influential too, like financial pressures or age difference between partners

Question 10

What are two strengths of child relationships?

Answer 10

The fact that children do not generally go on to form adult sexual relationships with each other, suggests it is an evolutionary anti invest device that stops related individuals breeding as such relationships could lead to the birth of children with genetically transmitted disabilities. Also those for,img secure attachments seeming to profit best in terms of developing positive personal characteristics and social abilities

Question 11

What two things are said about adult relationships?

Answer 11

1. Research indicates an intergenerational continuity (passed on across generations) between adult attachment types and their children including children adopting the parental styles of their own parents
2. Also appears to be continuity between early attachment styles and the quality of their later adult relationships but those who fail to achieve secure attachments in childhood are not necessarily condemned to a life of broken relationships

Question 12

Who conducted the first piece of research to support adult relationships?

Answer 12

McCarthy

Question 13

What did McCarty do and find?

Answer 13

He assessed the quality of adult relationships of 40 women aged 25-44 years with childhood insecure attachments. Women with insecure avoidant attachments had less successful adult romantic relationships, while those with insecure resistant attachments had problems forming non romantic adult friendships supporting the idea of an internal working model

Question 14

Who conducted the second piece of research to support adult relationships?

Answer 14

Hazan and Shaver

Question 15

What did Hazan and Shaver do and find?

Answer 15

They conducted a love quiz and found a relationship between the types of attachment people developed in infancy and the length of a committed relationship that they had in adulthood. This shows that there is an internal working model as a correlation was seen

Question 16

What are four limitations of adult relationships?

Answer 16

The data is retrospective so therefore it lacks validity. The sample may not be representative as it was only volunteers. Cause and effect cannot be established as a third factor such as the child’s temperament may have influenced the results. The quality of relationships may result in the interaction between two people’s attachment styles, not just their own, therefore insecurely attached people can have a secure relationship but only if they are in a relationship with another securely attached person

Question 17

What is a strength and limitation of adult relationships?

Answer 17

A self report method was used so may lead to problems with social desirability but steps were taken by the researchers to avoid this by requesting that questionnaires were returned anonymously