Influence of Childhood

Question 1

Who came up with the theory for the influence of parent-child relationships?

Answer 1

Shaver (88)

Question 2

Outline Shaver (88) for parent-child relationships

Answer 2

Claimed what we experience as romantic love in adulthood is an integration of 3 behavioural systems acquired during infancy: attachment, caregiving and sexuality systems

Question 3

What are the 3 behavioural systems in the theory regarding parent-child relationships?

Answer 3

1) Attachment
2) Caregiving
3) Sexuality

Question 4

Outline the attachment system for parent-child relationships

Answer 4

Related to the concept of internal working model - later relationships are likely to be a continuation of early attachement styles as behaviour of the infants’ primary attachment figure promotes an internal working model of relationships which leads to the infant to expect the same in later relationships

Question 5

Outline the caregiving system for parent-child relationships

Answer 5

It is knowledge about how one cares for others, learned by modelling the behaviour of the primary attachment figure

Question 6

Outline the sexuality system for parent-child relationships

Answer 6

It is learned in relation to early attachment - for example those with avoidant attachment are more likely to hold the view that sex without love is pleasurable

Question 7

Name 4 pieces of evidence supporting parent-child relationships

Answer 7

1) Springer (07)
2) Research suggests many victims of sexual abuse during childhood experience difficulties in forming healthy relationships in adulthood
3) Alpert (98)
4) van der Kolk & Fisler (94)

Question 8

Outline Springer (07)

Answer 8

Those who have experienced physical abuse in childhood are more likely to report increased rates of depression, anger and anxiety than non-abused individuals

Question 9

Outline Alpert (98)

Answer 9

Individuals who have experienced both forms of abuse during childhood develop a damaged ability to trust people and a sense of isolation from others - distancing and isolation can inhibit the development of romantic relationships during adulthood

Question 10

Outline van der Kolk & Fisler (94)

Answer 10

Found individuals who suffered childhood abuse also had difficulty in forming healthy attachments and formed disorganised attachments instead - these disorganised patterns of attachment lead to a difficulty in regulating emotions, a key aspect in forming and maintaining healthy relationships

Question 11

Name a negative evaluative point about parent-child relationships

Answer 11

Fraley (98)

Question 12

Outline Fraley (98)

Answer 12

Carried out a meta-analysis and found correlations from .10 and .50 between early attachment type and later relationships - low correlations

Question 13

What is an important point about Fraley (98)?

Answer 13

Suggested reason for the low correlations may be because insecure-anxious attachment is more unstable but it could be that an individual’s attachment type is determined by the current relationship as there is evidence which has found that relationship break-ups are associated with a shift from secure to insecure attachment

Question 14

Name a positive evaluative point about parent-child relationships

Answer 14

Research support for the influence of childhood abuse - Berenson & Anderson (06)

Question 15

Outline Berenson & Anderson (06)

Answer 15

Found adult women abused in childhood later displayed negative reactions towards another person - but only with people who reminded them of their abusive parent so concluded this process of transference could lead to individuals abused in childhood to use inappropriate behavioural patterns learned from their relationship with an abusive parent in their subsequent interpersonal relationships

Question 16

Outline childhood friendships in interaction with peers

Answer 16

Children learn from experiences with other children - a way a child thinks about themselves and others is determined by specific experiences which then become internalised - so develop a sense of own value as a result of interactions with other which in turn determine how they approach adult relationships - it has been suggested that children’s friendships are training grounds for important adult relationships

Question 17

Outline adolescent relationships in interaction with peers

Answer 17

Attachment usually shift from parents to peers and romantic relationships at this time serve a number of purposes

Question 18

Name 2 purposes of adolescent relationships

Answer 18

1) They help to achieve the goal of separation from parents
2) They can allow adolescents to gain a type of emotional and physical intimacy that is quite different from that experienced with parents

Question 19

Name 2 negative evaluative points of interaction with peers

Answer 19

1) Gender differences

2) Negative effects - Haynie (03), Neeman (95) & Madson

Question 20

Outline Richard & Schneider (05)

Answer 20

Found girls have more intimate friendships than boys and are more likely to report care and security in their relationships - boys’ relationships tend to be more competitive and girls tend to engage in cooperative and sharing activities

Question 21

What is the study which suggests gender differences for interaction with peers

Answer 21

Richard & Schneider (05)

Question 22

What was suggested against gender differences for interaction with peers

Answer 22

These sex differences have been over-emphasised and many similarities have been overlooked

Question 23

Outline Haynie (03)

Answer 23

Found romantic involvement increased some forms of deviance in adolescents by as much as 35%

Question 24

Outline Neemann (95)

Answer 24

Found romantic involvement in early to middle adolescence associated with decreases in academic achievement and increase in conduct problems however in late adolescence romantic involvement is no longer related to these negative outcomes, suggesting it is the timing of romantic relationships that determines what influence, if any, they will have

Question 25

Outline Madson

Answer 25

Found heavy duty dating patterns during adolescence are associated with poorer quality adult relationships

Question 26

What study challenges the negative effects of adolescent relationships?

Answer 26

Roisman (04)

Question 27

Outline Roisman (04)

Answer 27

Found no effect of romantic experiences at age 20 on romantic relationships at age 30, suggesting there is not consistent evidence that adolescent romantic relationships are the ‘building blocks’ of adult relationships

Question 28

Name 3 general positive evaluative points about the influence of childhood

Answer 28

1) Simpson (07)
2) Suomi & Harlow (78)
3) Hazan & Shaver

Question 29

Outline Simpson (07)

Answer 29

Longitudinal study over 25 years looking at 78 ppts - year 1, parents reported attachment behaviour - 6-8 years teachers rated peer interactions of children - 16 years children asked to describe close relationships - adulthood romantic partners asked to describe experiences - found securely attached infants had higher social competence as children so closer to friends at 16 and more expressive and emotionally attached to romantic partners

Question 30

What does Simpson (07) show?

Answer 30

Findings support claim that expression of emotions in adult romantic relationships can be related back to a person’s attachment experiences during earlier social development

Question 31

What is a negative about Simpson (07)?

Answer 31

Not reliable when asked parents as parents are subjective as more likely to see child as being securely attached

Question 32

Why are experiments involving social deprivation not possible with human children?

Answer 32

Ethical issues

Question 33

Outline Suomi & Harlow (78)

Answer 33

Found rhesus monkeys reared with adequate adult but inadequate peer contact later displayed inappropriate social and sexual behaviour as adults - and the longer they were denied the opportunity to interact with other young monkeys, the more extreme were their social inadequacies as adults

Question 34

Outline Hazan & Shaver

Answer 34

Found strikingly high correlation between infant attachment types and adult romantic love styles which supports the concept of the inner working model having a life-long effect but some people did change

Question 35

What is the main disadvantage about the influence of childhood?

Answer 35

It is deterministic - research indicates very early experiences have a fixed effect on later adult relationships so children who are insecurely attached at the age of one are doomed to experience emotionally unsatisfactory relationships as adults - but this is fortunately not the case as there are plenty of cases where ppts were experiencing happy adult relationships despite not having been securely attached as infants

Question 36

Who came up with the social learning theory for the influence of childhood?

Answer 36

Parke (88)

Question 37

Outline the social learning theory for the influence of childhood

Answer 37

Continuity between relationships with parents and the ability to make friends is due to the relationship skills learnt from parents via modelling (observation and imitation) - not due to attachment styles

Question 38

What study support the social learning theory for the influence of childhood?

Answer 38

Russell & Finnie (90)

Question 39

Outline Russell & Finnie (90)

Answer 39

Carried out an observation of Australian pre-school children in new school environment and found ‘popular children’ seen to have mothers who suggested strategies to help them interact and also found ‘neglected children’ had mothers who encouraged them to play with toys but did not suggest ways to play with others

Question 40

Name the 3 theories of the influence of childhood

Answer 40

1) Parent-child relationships
2) Interaction with peers
3) Social learning theory