Influence of early attachment on later relationship Flashcards
Balancing opportunity and risk
On one hand, by knowing someone’s attachment status we have an opportunity to intervene and help their development. This may be particularly important in helping people with disorganised attachment. There are therapies designed to improve attachment security.
On the other hand, we may become too pessimistic once we know someone has an insecure attachment. It seems likely that the influence of early attachment is probabilistic (Clarke and Clarke 1998). This means that an insecure attachment does not invariably cause increased risk of later developmental problems – no one is inevitably going to have unsuccessful romantic relationships because of their early attachment experiences. It may be more likely but a host of other factors are involved. They may just be more vulnerable than those with a secure attachment. We might create a self-fulfilling prophecy once we know someone’s attachment status.
In conclusion some people would be better off if we did not know their attachment type, but those with disorganised attachment could probably benefit from intervention.
Research support
One strength of the research into attachment and later relationships is supporting evidence.
We have looked at studles linking attachment to later developrent. 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. How strong the relationship is between early attachment type and later development depends both on the attachment type and the aspect of later development. So whilst insecure-avoidant attachment seems to convey fairly mild disadvantages for any aspect of development, disorganised attachment is strongly associated with later mental disorder.
This means that secure attachment as a baby appears to convey advantages for future development while disorganised attachment appears to seriously disadvantage children.
Counterpoint research support
Not all evidence supports the exisentance of close links between
early attachment and later development. For example the Regensburg longitudinal study (Becker-Stoll et al. 2008) followed 43 individuals from one year of age. At age 16 attachment was assessed using the adult attachment interview and there was no evidence of continuity.
This means that it is not clear to what extent the quality of early attachment really predicts later development. There may be other important factors.
Validity issues with retrospective st&dies
One limitation of most rèsearch into the influence of attachment is that early attachment is assessed retrospectively.
Most research on the link between early attachment and later development are. not longitudinal (i.e. they don’t assess attachment in early life and then revisit the same person later in life). Instead researchers usually ask adolescent or adult participants questions about their relationship with parents, and identify attachment type from this. This causes two validity problems. First, asking questions relies on the honesty and accurate perception of the participants. Second, it means it is very hard to know whether what is being assessed is early attachment or in fact adult attachment
This means that the measures of early attachment used in most studies may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless.
Confounding variables
A further limitation of studies into the influence of early attachment on later development is the existence of confounding variables.
Some studies do assess attachment in infancy (e.g. McCarthy on facing page), which means that the assessment of early attachment is valid. However, even these I studies may have validity problems because associations between attachment quality and later development may be affected by confounding variables. For example parenting style may influence both attachment quality and later development.
Alternatively genetically-influenced personality may be an influence on both factors.
This means that we can never be entirely sure that it is early attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development
