influence of early attachment on later relationships

Question 1

what is the behaviour of securely, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attached children in childhood?

Answer 1

secure- no involvement of bullying other children, high quality childhood friendships
insecure avoidant- most likely to be victims of bullying
insecure resistant- most likely to bully other children

Question 2

what is the behaviour of securely, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attached children in adult relationships?

Answer 2

secure: had the best quality relationships and friendships, more likely to have balanced and long lasting relationships
insecure avoidant: struggles with intimacy, afraid of closeness and do not believe they need love to be happy, avoid romantic relationships and have high divorce rates
insecure resistant: have friendship difficulties, high levels of jealousy and obsessive behaviour in romantic relationships, tend to have lots of romantic relationships and have a high divorce rate

Question 3

what are internal working models?

Answer 3

the mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver. they are important in affecting our future relationships because they carry our perception of what relationships are like

Question 4

how do internal working models work?

Answer 4

it forms the child’s mental representation of relationships based on their relationship with their primary caregiver. a child whose first experience is a loving relationship will tend to assume that this is how relationships are meant to be. they will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them (without either being too involved or too emotionally close, or argumentative)

Question 5

who conducted a study on the adult relationships of women with different attachment types?

Answer 5

Gerald McCarthy

Question 6

what was Gerald McCarthy’s study?

Answer 6

he studied 40 adult women who has been assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type. Those assessed as securely attached infants had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships. Adults classed as insecure-resistant as infants had particular problems maintaining friendships whilst those classed as insecure-avoidant struggle with intimacy in romantic relationships.

Question 7

who in investigated bullying behaviour in children?

Answer 7

Rowan Myron-Wilson
Peter Smith

Question 8

what was the study conducted by Rowan Myron-Wilson and Peter Smith?

Answer 8

they assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London. Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying. Insecure avoidant children were the most likely to be victims and insecure resistant were the most likely to be bullies.

evaluation:
•may have lied, social desirability bias
•sample from London, not generalisable

Question 9

What was the procedure of Hazen and Shaver’s ‘love quiz’ study?

Answer 9

•they analysed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ printed in an American local newspaper
•the quiz had 3 sections, the first assessed respondents’ current or most important relationship. the second part assessed general love experiences such as the number of partners. The third section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of three statements best described their feelings.

Question 10

what were the findings of Hazen and Shaver’s ‘love quiz’ study?

Answer 10

•56% of respondents were identified as securely attached
•25% assessed as insecure-avoidant
•19% insecure-resistant
•those reported secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic experiences.
•the avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and and a fear of intimacy
•these findings suggest that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships

Question 11

how many replies did Hazen and Shaver analyse?

Answer 11

620

Question 12

in Hazen and Shaver’s research, how many respondents were classified as securely attached?

Answer 12

56%

Question 13

in Hazen and Shaver’s research, how many respondents were identified as insecure-avoidant?

Answer 13

25%

Question 14

in Hazen and Shaver’s research, how many respondents were identified as being insecure-resistant?

Answer 14

19%

Question 15

conclusions about relationships in adulthood as a parent

Answer 15

the majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers

Question 16

evaluation points for the influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 16

limitation: evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed
limitation: most studies have issues of validity
limitation: association does not mean causality
limitation: the influence of early attachment is probabilistic

Question 17

limitation: evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed

Answer 17

internal working models predict continuity between the security of an infants attachment and that of its later relationships (attachment type in infancy is usually the same as that characterising the persons later relationships)
•Evidence for this continuity is mixed. some studied like McCarthy do appear to support continuity and so provide evidence to support internal working models
•not all studies support internal working models. for example Zimmerman assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. there was very little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.
•This is a problem because it is not what we would expect if internal working models were important in development.

Question 18

what did Zimmerman find?

Answer 18

Zimmerman assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. there was very little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment,

Question 19

limitation: most studies have issues of validity

Answer 19

most studies of attachment to primary caregiver and other significant people do not make use of the SST but assess infant-parent attachment by means of interview or questionnaires, and these are not conducted in infancy but years later.
•This created validity problems. First, assessment relies on self-report techniques like interviews or questionnaires to assess the quality of those relationships.
•the validity of questionnaires and interviews is limited because they depend on respondents being honest and having a realistic view of their own relationships.
•A related problem concerns the retrospective nature of assessment of infant attachment. looking back in adulthood at ones early relationship to a primary attachment figure probably lacks validity because it relies on accurate recollections

Question 20

two issues of validity that often occur in assessments of infant attachments

Answer 20

•the use of interviews or questionnaires
•the retrospective nature of the assessment, causes the responses to lack accuracy and credibility

Question 21

limitation: association does not mean causality

Answer 21

in those studies where infant attachment type is associated with the quality of later relationships the implication is that infant attachment type causes the attachment.
•However, there are alternative explanations for the continuity that often exists between infant and later relationships.
•A third environmental factor such as parenting style might have a direct affect on both attachment and the child’s ability to form relationships with others.
•Alternatively, the child’s temperament (discussed on page 87) may influence both infant attachment and the quality of later relationships
•this is a limitation because it is counter to Bowlbys view that the internal working model caused these later outcomes.