Influence of Early Attachment on adult relationship

Question 1

What did Bowlby suggest about the internal working model?

Answer 1

a child having their first relationship with their primary attachment figure forms a mental representation of this relationship and acts as a template for future relationships

Question 2

What did Bowlby suggest about the internal working model in terms of a child’s first relationship being loving and reliable?

Answer 2

a child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to assume that this is how relationships are meant to be and seek out functional relationships and behave in the same way

Question 3

What did Bowlby suggest about the internal working model in terms of a child’s first relationship having a bad experience?

Answer 3

If a child has a bad experience of their first attachment, then the child will bring these qualities to future relationships and struggle to form them and behave functionally within them

Question 4

What did Hazan and Shaver investigate?

Answer 4

the association between attachment and adult relationships

Question 5

What did Hazan and Shaver do?

Answer 5

analysed 620 replies to a love quiz which had three sections

Question 6

What did the first section in the love quiz assess ?

Answer 6

The first assessed respondents current or most important relationship

Question 7

What did the second section in the love quiz assess?

Answer 7

The second part assessed general love experiences such as the number of partners

Question 8

What did the third section in the love quiz assess?

Answer 8

third part assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which statement best described their feeling

Question 9

What did Hazan and Shaver find?

Answer 9

They found that 56% of respondents were identified as securely attached with 25% insecure avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant

Question 10

What did Hazan and Shaver find in terms of those who reported secure attachment?

Answer 10

were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic experience

Question 11

What did Hazan and Shaver find in terms of those who reported avoidant respondents?

Answer 11

were more likely to have fear of intimacy and jealousy

Question 12

What did Hazan and Shaver findings suggest?

Answer 12

This suggests that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships thus supporting Bowlby’s theory

Question 13

Who provides mixed evidence to Hazan and Shaver?

Answer 13

Zimmerman

Question 14

What did Zimmerman do and find?

Answer 14

assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents and found little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment

Question 15

Why is Zimmerman findings an issue for research into the influence of attachment on childhood and adult relationships?

Answer 15

this evidence shows poor reliability when viewing the internal working model in development. [can be used to criticise bowlby]

Question 16

Why does research into the influence of attachment on childhood and adult relationships lack validity?

Answer 16

This is because many assessments of early attachments and current day attachments rely on the use of questionnaires and interviews as a means of categorising participants as a specific attachment type

Question 17

What is the limitation with self-report methods?

Answer 17

This is a weakness as the self report methods may mean that the data is retrospective and thus there is a high chance that the data being collected in these studies are inaccurate and thus calls into question the validity of the research findings