Influence Of Early Attachment On Child And Adult Relationships

Question 1

Outline method and findings of Myron-Wilson and Smith’s bullying study

Answer 1

-assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using questionnaires for 7-11 year olds in London
-found secure not involved, insecure-avoidant victims of bullying, insecure-resistant the bully

Question 2

Outline method and findings of Bailey’s 99 mothers study

Answer 2

-Bailey interviewed new mothers about their attachment to their own mothers and observed the mothers with their own one year old and conducted a standardised interview about their child’s attachment
-reported that early attachments and the type of attachment they now had with their own children was highly correlated- supports IWM

Question 3

Expand on method of Hazan and shaver’s love quiz

Answer 3

-620 people replied to a newspaper quiz by sending in their answers to three sections of questions
-section 1(attachment type in romantic relationships), section 2(features of romantic relationships and characteristics of ppt), section 3(childhood attachment style)

Question 4

Findings of Hazan and Shaver’s love quiz

Answer 4

-secure (56%): positive relationships, trust others and believe in enduring love, positive image of mother as dependable and caring
-resistant(19%): preoccupied by love, fall in love easily but have trouble finding true love, conflicting memories of mother being positive and rejecting
-avoidant(25%): fearful of closeness, love is not durable nor necessary for happiness, remember mother as cold and rejecting

Question 5

Expand on limitation that IWM is a schema

Answer 5

-is an internal mental process which means we cannot directly observe it
-therefore we must make inferences= unfalsifiable and lacks scientific credibility

Question 6

Expand on limitation that theory is deterministic

Answer 6

-early attachments determine later relationships, ignores free will and relationships
-less realistic explanation of human behaviour as not always the case that early attachments determine later ones

Question 7

Expand on limitation that theory based on correlational data

Answer 7

-cannot establish cause and effect, may be a third variable
-Zimmerman did not find a correlation between adolescent attachment and adult attachment but factors eg parental illness/divorce were better predictors of adult attachment

Question 8

Expand on limitation that research relies on self-report data

Answer 8

-may lie due to social desirability bias, decay of memory as asking about early attachments
-challenges validity, may tell us little