early attachment & internal working model Flashcards
1
Q
internal working model
A
- Bowlby – baby’s first relationship with primary attachment figure leads to mental representation of this relationship
- Internal working model acts as a template for future childhood and adulthood relationships
- Baby first relationship is loving- seek out functional relationships
- Babys first relationship is bad – struggle to form relationships, displaying insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant behaviour
2
Q
relationships in childhood
A
- Kerns - Securely attached babies go on to form best quality childhood friendships, insecurely attached have later friendship difficulties
- Myron-Wilson and Smith
3
Q
relationships in childhood
Myron-Wilson and Smith
A
- Assessed attachment type and bullying involvement
- Questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London
- Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying
- Insecure-avoidant children most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children most likely to be bullies
4
Q
relationships in adulthood
A
- Internal working model affect 2 major adult experiences – romantic and parental with your own children
- McCarthy
5
Q
relationships in adulthood
McCarthy
A
- Studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were babies to establish their early attachment type
- Securely attached babies had best adult friendships and romantic relationships
- Adults classed as insecure-resistant as babies had problems maintaining friendships
- Insecure – avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships
6
Q
Internal working model in adulthood
A
- affect child’s ability to parent their own children
- People base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment types tend to be passed through generations
- Bailey – attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers
- Mother-baby attachment was assessed using strange situation and mothers attachment to their own mother was assessed using an adult attachment interview
- Majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers
7
Q
evaluation
A
- research support
- validity issues with retrospective studies
- confounding variables
8
Q
research support
A
- Fearon and Roisman – early attachment consistently predicts later attachment, emotional wellbeing and attachment to own children
- Insecure-avoidant attachment conveys fairly mild disadvantages for any aspect of development, disorganised attachment is strongly associated with later mental disorder
- Means secure-attachment as a baby advantages for future development while disorganised attachment appears to seriously disadvantage children
9
Q
counterpoint
A
- Not all evidence supports the existence of close links between early attachment and later development
- Regensburg longitudinal study- 43 individuals from 1 -16 attachment assessed using interview and there was no evidence of continuity
- Not clear what extent the quality of early attachment really predicts later development
- May be other important factors
10
Q
validity issues with retrospective studies
A
- Early attachment is assessed retrospectively
- Most research isn’t longitudinal
- Researchers usually ask adolescent or adult participants questions about their relationship with parents, and identify attachment form from this
- Asking questions relies on honesty and accurate perception of the participants
- Hard to know whether what being assessed is early attachment or adult attachment
- Measures of early attachment used in most studies may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless
11
Q
confounding variables
A
- Parenting style may influence both attachment quality and later development
- Genetically-influenced personality may be an influence on both factors
- Means we can never be entirely sure that it is early attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development
