Influence Of Early Attachment On Later Relationships Flashcards
Internal working model
Earlier in this chapter we discussed the formation of the internal working model (see page 84). John Bowlby (1969) suggested that a baby’s frst relationship with their primary page nment higure leads to a mental representation of this relationship. This internal working model acts as a template for future childhood and adult relationships.
The quality of a baby’s first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships. A baby whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure will tend to assume this is how relationships are meant to be. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them, i.e. without being too uninvolved or emotionally close (which would typify insecure-avoidant attachment) or being controlling and argumentative (insecure-resistant attachment).
A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to bear on later relationships. This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first plate or they may not behave appropriately within relationships, displaying insecure- avoidant or insecure-resistant behaviour towards friends and partners.
Relationships in childhood
Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood. Securely attached babies tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached babies later have friendship difficulties (Kerns 1994).
win particular, bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type. Rowan Myron-Wilson and Peter Smith (998) assessed attachment lype and bullying involvement using Standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London. Secure children were very unicely to be involved in bulying. Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies.
Relationships in adulthood
Internal working models affect two major adult experiences - romantic relationships and parental relationships with your own children.
A classic study about romantic relationships and attachment, by Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver (1987), is described on the left. In another, Gerard McCarthy (1999) studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were babies to establish their early attachment type. Those assessed as securely attached babies had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships. Adults classed as insecure-resistant as babies had particular problems maintaining friendships whilst those classed as insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.
Internal working models also affect the child’s ability to parent their own children. People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family. Recall the study by Heidi Bailey et al. (2007, see page 85). They considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers. Mother-baby attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation and mother’s allachment to their own mother was assessed using an adult attachment interview. The majolly of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers.
Strength-research support
One strength of the research into attachment and later relationships is supporting evidence.
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. 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 -Not all evidence supports the existence 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.
Limitation-validity issues with retrospective studies
One limitation of most research 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 (see evidence from the Regensburg longitudinal study above).
This means that the measures of early attachment used in most studies may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless.
Limitation-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 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.
