Influence Of Early Attachment On Childhood And Adult Relationships Flashcards
What are the different experiments on how attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships In childhood
Secure attachments means - self confident infant and formed better friendships
Secure attachments were unlikely to be involved in bullying however , avoidant attachments were more likely to be victims and resistant were more likely to be bullies
More research shows that secure babies form better attachments whereas insecure have friendship difficulties
What’s the experiment hazen did with romantic partners
- they analysed 620 replies to a love quiz
- assessed current relationships , love life and attachment type
Secure - happy friendly and trusting - 56%
Avoidant -jealous , fear intamcy and uncomfortable being close to others 25%
Resistant - obsessive , desire intense closeness - 19%
Their lengths of relationships are shorter depending on attachment
Evaluation points
Link Decreases with Age: P-A weakness of research into early attachment tpes and adult relationships is that is appears to decrease with age. E-Insecurely attached children do not always become insecurely attached adults; the link tends to decrease with age. This seems to be because the average person will participate in several different relationships which may alter their internal working model. In other words, successful relationships may alter the internal working model of an adult who had been previously insecurely attached to their parents.
E-A further limitation is that most of the research is purely correlational. This means that there has no control over extraneous variables, such as negative life events, which may influence future relationships. L-This means that it cannot be concluded from this research alone that early attachment forms adult attachment styles.
X Methodological issues
p-One limitation of the research into early attachment types and adult relationships is that it is often based on self-report measures. E-For example, interviews or surveys which assess attachment styles and relationships with parents. E-These are retrospective so rely on the memory of the participant, which we know from studying the ‘Memory’ unit, can be unreliable due to forgetting or other factors. For example, social desirability bias when people report themselves in a favourable light to look like they have better relationships with their parents for example. L-Therefore, this lowers the internal validity of the results.
X Free Will vs. Determinism
P- A limitation of research into early attachment types and adult relationships is that it is unfair to label a child “doomed” due to their attachment type. E-Although a relationship has been found, this has never been 100% determined, so there must be other factors which contribute to formation of our adult relationships. E-This theory is suggesting that the effects of poor attachments as children will be long-lasting, but as adults, we have the cognitive ability to reflect on our past and recognise what unhealthy relationships look like, thus can choose to avoid these in the future. L-Suggesting we have free will with forming adult relationships.
Research support
P-One strength of research into attachment and later relationships is supporting evidence. E-We have looked at studies linking attachment to later development. Reviews of such evidence (e.g.
Fearon and Roisman, 2017) have concluded that early attachment consistently predicts later attachment, emotional well-being and attachment to own children. E-How strong the relationship is between early attachment type and later development depends both on the attachment type and the aspect of later development. L-This means that secure attachment as a baby appears to convey advantages for future development while disorganised attachment appears to seriously disadvantage children.
