Hazan and Shaver - romantic love Flashcards
What was the aim?
to explore the possibility that attachment theory offers a perspective on adult romantic love and to create a framework for understanding love,loneliness and grief at different points in the life cycle
What was predicted?
There would be a correlation between adult’s attachment styles and the type of parenting they received
Adults with different attachment styles will display different characteristic mental models (internal representation) of themselves and their major social interaction partners.
What was the procedure?
Respondents do a love quiz in a local newspaper and were asked which of the three descriptions best applied to their inner feelings about romantic relationships . These descriptions related to secure attachment, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant attachments.
Participants also completed a checklist about childhood relationships with parent , relating to the same attachment types - two separate samples were tested
Sample 1 - 205 men and 415 women between 14-82 (91% heterosexual , 42% married, 28% divorced or widowed, 9% cohabiting, 31% dating)
Sample 2- 108 students - (38 men and 70 women) who answered additional items focusing on the self side of the mental model ( as opposed to their partner) as well as items measuring loneliness
What were the findings?
In both samples those described as securely attached described the most important love relationship they ever had as happy, friendly and trusting - these participants had longer relationships and tended not to be divorced - found others trustworthy and had confidence in themselves as likeable
Insecure resistant participants were more doubtful about the existence or durability of romantic love - they maintained that they didn’t need love to be happy
Insecure avoidant participants expressed more self-doubt compared with both other types but compared with the insecure-resistant participants didn’t repress feelings of security
Both insecure types were vulnerable to loneliness (insecure resistant - sample 2 being most vulnerable)
What were the conclusions?
The percentages of adults in the different attachment types match those of the children in Ainsworth’s strange situation study
The correlation between adults attachment styles and their memories of parenting style they received is similar to Ainsworth’s findings where children’s attachment styles were correlated with the degree of sensitivity shown by mothers
Adults mental models differ according to attachment styles - securely attached have a more positive and optimistic outlook on themselves and love compared to insecure attachment types
People with insecure attachment are vulnerable to loneliness.
What were the percentages?
Sample 1 = 56% secure, 23% insecure avoidant and 19% insecure resistant
Sample 2 - 56% secure, 25% insecure avoidant and 20% insecure resistant
What is one strengths?
The researcher provided a typical account of the processes involved in romantic love and an understanding of individual differences in adult relationship styles as well as a connection between infant attachment theory and theories of romantic love which stimulated research in the area
What is a weakness?
Attachment types identified by strange situation only relate to the quality of relationships with one person therefore an adult’s choice of a paragraph describing their attachment style might only relate to their current relationship
self-report
What is another strength?
The research shows continuity of childhood attachment styles into adulthood doesn’t always occur e.g. insecurely attached children don’t always become insecurely attached adults. The average person participates in several important friendships and love relationships providing opportunities for revising mental models of self and others
Main et al supported this optimistic view finding that some adults in insecure relationships with parents produced securely attached children as they had mentally worked through their unpleasant experiences and now had mental models of relationships more typical to the securely attached
