Influence of early attachment

Question 1

Attachment types in childhood

Answer 1

Secure attachment:

-Less isolated, more
popular, more empathetic

Securely attached infants have higher expectations that others are friendly. This enables them to be more trusting and form relationships

Question 2

Attachment types in adulthood (relationships)

Answer 2

There are links between early attachment types and later relationships

Secure attachment led to long lasting, loving relationships

Question 3

Attachment types in adulthood (parenting)

Answer 3

Harlow’s research shows how poor early attachment can lead to poor parenting

Quinton showed that the same was true with humans
— the lack of an IWM
meant that individuals
lacked a reference point
to base their own
parenting on

Question 4

Who carried out the Love Quiz?

Answer 4

Hazan and Shaver

Question 5

What was the procedure of the Love Quiz?

Answer 5

‘Love Quiz’ put into a local newspaper.
-Asked about current and past attachment to identify current and past attachment types.

-Asked questions about attitude towards love (assessed the IWM)

-620 responses (205 men, 415 women)

Question 6

What were the results of the Love Quiz?

Answer 6

Current attachment types were similar to the infant ones.
(56% Secure, 25% Avoidant, 16% Resistant)

Secure attached ppts had longer, more loving and trusting relationships

Secure attached ppts had a strong IWM

Question 7

AO3 -

Relies on retrospective classification

Answer 7

Retrospective classification is remembering a past event

This may be flawed as an adults memory of infant attachments are likely distorted or forgotten

Question 8

AO3 -

Overly determinist

Answer 8

The Love Quiz suggests that early childhood experienced have a fixed/ determined effect on adult relationships

This had been disproven by researchers who have found many instances of ppts having happy adult relationships despite being insecurely attached in early life

Therefore Love Quiz overly determinist as an individuals past does not unalterably determine the quality of future relationships

Question 9

AO3 +

Support from longitudinal studies

Answer 9

Simpson et al

Found that securely attached infants had:

Higher social competence as infants

Closer friends at 16

More expressive and attached to their romantic partners in adulthood

Therefore supports Hazan and Shaver

Question 10

AO3 -

Not all research has a strong positive correlation

Answer 10

Fraley

• found correlations
  ranging from 0.10 to 0.50
  (WEAK)
• This was because the
  insecure-resistant
  attachment type was
  more unstable than
  Hazan and Shaver
  thought.

These low correlations pose a weakness to the research as they suggest that attachment type is not stable.
- Therefore makes testing
its effects less
predictable and therefore
less reliable