Influence of Early Attachment on childhood / adult relationships Flashcards
What did Bowlby (1969) suggest children develop in his monotropic theory?
An internal working model (IWM) of their relationship with their PAF
What is an IWM?
These include the rules / expectations a child learns that are part of all relationships
Define Continuity Hypothesis.
Bowlby predicted IWM continues to form basis of relationships throughout an infants life
What does it mean if the ‘continuity hypothesis’ is correct, suggested by Bowlby?
we can expect a child’s attachment type to influence their teenage and adult relationships
How do each of the three attachment types influence children’s adult relationships?
secure - children grow to have healthy / stable adult relationships.
Avoidant - children grow up to have relationships, they may not be close to their partner.
Resistant children grow up to being controlling / argumentative.
What did Kerns (1994) study regarding attachment / friendships?
Studied the impact of attachment type on childhood friendships.
What did Kerns (1994) find from his study regarding attachment and friendships?
securely attached children had strongest friendships.
insecurely (both types) attached children had friendships that started later + had more difficulties.
What did Myron-Wilson + Smith (1998) find between the three attachment types and bullying?
What do these suggest?
secure children unlikely to be involved with bullying
avoidant infants more likely to be victims
resistant more likely to be the bullies.
Suggests attachment type can influence childhood friendships.
What did Bailey et al. (2007) measure regarding mothers/ babies and what did he find from this?
He measured attachment strength of 99 mothers + babies, and assessed each mother’s attachment to their own parent.
Found mothers with poor attachments to their own parents were most likely to have poor attachments with their own children.
What did Hazan + Shaver (1987) study the impact of, on who and what were the two type of questionnaire?
Studied impact of childhood attachment on adult attachments by recruiting ppts through advert in local newspaper.
Ppts completed 2 questionnaires, the 1st on their child attachment, and the 2nd on romantic adult relationships.
What did the ppts, who identified as having secure-attachment as children, say about having adult relationships in Hazan + Shaver’s (1987) study?
They said that they found it easier getting close to others and that they didn’t worry about abandonment.
What did the ppts, who identified as having insecure-avoidant as children, say about having adult relationships in Hazan + Shaver’s (1987) study?
They said that they were uncomfortable getting close to others, and that they find it difficult to trust them / getting intimate.
What did the ppts, who identified as having insecure-resistant as children, say about having adult relationships in Hazan + Shaver’s (1987) study?
They said that they’re reluctant becoming close to others. They worried partners don’t love them and may leave, sometimes even wanting to become too close with their partners.
Sroufe et al. studied who in their Minnesota longitudinal study regarding attachment types?
Studied children from age 1 to 20 years.
What were the two results from Sroufe et al.’s Minnesota longitudinal study?
(regarding secure / insecure attachment types)
Adults who had been securely attached as infants had grown to be confident + sociable.
Those insecurely attached as infants become anti social, shy + often found it hard to relate to others.
What does Sroufe et al’s Minnesota longitudinal study suggest about childhood relationships?
Suggests that they can influence adult romantic relationships
Who did Becker-Stroll et al. (2008) follow and what was their issue that they had found, disputing ‘Continuity Hypothesis’ ?
followed 43 individuals, from one year to age 16.
Found no evidence for continuity hypothesis, questioning Bowlby’s reliability.
Following from Becker-stroll et al’s (2008) dispute, what did Zimmerman et al. (2000) find and what could this better be explained through?
Found little correlation between attachment style at 12-18 months and the quality of later relationships.
Better explained through life events being a more important factor of relationship quality.
What is the issue regarding the continuity hypothesis regarding correlation?
Linking IWM/ early attachment with later relationships is only correlational, therefore there is no cause + effect.
What are the two issues with some of the studies that support the ‘continuity hypothesis’ i.e. Hazan + Shaver ?
There may be inaccuracies / errors in the recall over a long period of time, due to being a retrospective study, that reduces validity.
Social desirability bias could’ve influenced ppts to answer to seem more securely attached.
What is an alternative to attachment types that Kagan (1984) suggested?
The Temperament hypothesis.
What does the temperament hypothesis suggest, proposed by Kagan (1984)
Suggests that an infant’s temperament affects the way a parent responds, thus may be a determining factor in infant attachment types / later relationship type.
What did Kagan (1984) state about personality types?
Suggested that they are largely biological and they’re best explained through a combination of genes + parent/child interactions.
From kagan’s (1984) findings, what could temperament have a significant role in and why?
Could be playing a significant role in adult relationships, due to it having a biological cause rather than being a result of attachment type.
