Influence Of Early Attachment Flashcards
The role of the IWM in (early) attachments?
Bowlby suggested that early attachments have lifelong consequences and that there is a correlation between attachment as an infant and attachment as a child. The key to this correlation is the internal working model: children use experience of relationships to form a model to predict what future ones will be like
Who studied the IWM and how?
Hazan and Shaver, they designed a study to test the internal working model. They asked questions about previous/current relationship experience to identify past/present relationship types. They analysed 620 responses
What did Hazan and Shaver find?
They found that attachment types as an adult were similar to attachments in infancy. 56% were secure, 25% avoidant, 19% resistant. They found a positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences. Securely attached adults were more likely to have a loving, enduring relationship than insecurely attached individuals. This is because those securely attached have a more positive internal working model
Which behaviours does the IWM influence?
Childhood friendships: more securely attached infants would go on to have higher social competence, more popular and more empathetic. The internal working model plays a part because these children have higher expectations of people being trusting/friendly which enables easier relationships
Poor parenting: Research on monkeys by Harlow showed a link between poor attachment and later difficulty with parenting. This is because individuals without an IWM have no reference point to subsequently form relationships with their own children.
Romantic relationships: Hazan and Shaver found that securely attached adults are more likely to have a positive IWM which means longer lasting romantic relationships.
Mental health: lack of attachment formed in the critical period means there is a lack of IWM. This leads to disinhibited attachment (in the DSM) which is where individuals cannot interact with or relate to others.
What is a limitation of research into early attachments? (Correlational)
The research linking early attachment and later love styles is correlational not experimental and so it is hard to draw a cause/effect conclusion between these two stages. It is possible that early attachment and later love styles are caused by Kagan’s Temperament Hypothesis. The infants temperament is a determining factor in attachment type and issues with later relationships. It is an intervening factor which makes it hard to say that the IWM is the one conclusive influence of attachment
What is a limitation of research of early attachment? (Determinist)
Research suggests that early attachments have a fixed effect on later relationships and that all insecurely attached children are inevitably going to have an unstable relationship later in life. However, there is also research that contradicts this. For example by Simpson et al. It has been found that insecurely attached individuals are perfectly capable of later forming loving, happy relationships.
What is a strength of research into early attachments?
Longitudinal studies support Hazan and Shaver’s findings. A longitudinal study by Simpson et al assessed attachment type at 1y/o and its affects later on in life. They found that securely attached infants went on to have a higher social competence as a child, were closer to their friends in adolescence and were more expressive and emotionally attached in romantic relationships as an adult. This supports the view that early attachments have life long consequences
