Influence of Early attachment on later relationships Flashcards
What is the internal working model
Bowlby proposed that a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver – this is known as the internal working model. The idea is that the attachment between a caregiver and infant (i.e. the monotropy) becomes a template or internal working model about what future relationships will be like and what to expect from others – for example about whether others can be trusted, whether love is conditional .etc. This model has several consequences: (1) in the short term it gives the child insight into the caregiver’s behaviour and enables the child to influence the caregiver’s behaviour, so that a true partnership is formed; (2) in the long term it acts as a template for all future relationships because it generates expectations about what intimate, loving relationships are like.
What could internal working model be described as
The internal working model can also be described as a schema for what relationships should entail. This occurs from the first attachment that a baby forms. The infant learns what relationships are and how partners in a relationship between towards each other. It is an ‘’operable’’ model of self and attachment partner, based on their joint attachment history – it is operable because it is used to predict the behaviour of other people in the future.
Bowlby (1969) suggested that a child having their first relationship with the primary attachment figure forms a mental representation of their relationship. Furthermore, The quality of this first relationship is crucial as it acts as a template and can affect all future relationships.
Loving first attachment= functional relationships
Bad first relationship= struggle to form relationships/ inappropriate behaviour
Bowlby’s theory predicted that there would be continuities between early attachment experiences and later social and emotional behaviour.
Research in early attachment experience and later social and emotional adjustment
In support of this explanation a number of longitudinal studies have demonstrated a link between early attachment experience and later social and emotional adjustment. Prior and Glaser (2006) provide the following summary:
- Secure attachment is associated with positive outcomes such as less emotional dependence, ambition and interpersonal harmony.
- Avoidant attachment is linked with aggressiveness, and generally negative effect.
- Resistant attachment is associated with greater anxiety and withdrawn behaviour.
What are 2 aspects of the influence of early attachments
1) Childhood relationships
2) Adult relationships
- The influence of attachment on childhood relationships
There are two studies that support the influence of early attachments on relationships in childhood:
1)Minnesota child-parent study by Sroufe et al. (2005) found continuity between early attachment and later emotional/social behaviour. Individuals who were classified as securely attached in infancy were highest rated for social competence later in childhood, were less isolated and more popular, and more empathetic. This can be explained in terms of the internal working model because securely attached infants have higher expectations that others are friendly and trusting, and this would enable easier relationships with others.
2)Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998) assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7 – 11 from London. Securely attached children were unlikely to be involved in bullying. Insecure-avoidant attached children were the most likely to be victims of bullying whereas insecure-resistant attached children were the most likely to be bullies. This may be because insecure attached children did not have a strong internal working model due to the type of attachment they had with the primary caregiver.
Evaluation of early attachment on childhood relationships
A strength of the influence of early attachment on childhood friendships is the supporting research from both the Minnesota study and Myron-Wilson and Smith’s study. This is because the Minnesota study is longitudinal as is following the same children throughout their life. This means that conclusions drawn from this study on the impact of the internal working model on childhood friendships is strong. For example, if a child has poor relationships with their friends, then this can be followed and traced back to find the cause of this? Was it due to a poor internal working model during the forming of their first attachment?
However, a problem with some research on the impact of early attachment on childhood friendships is that the methodology used is flawed – for example in Myron-Wilson and Smith study, they used standard questionnaires to assess attachment type and school friendships – the questionnaire itself may be a victim of social desirability bias as many participants may pretend that they have a secure attachment – to portray themselves in a positive light whereas in reality they may not have had a secure attachment. Also, many participants could have lied about the bullying either pretending to be victims or not being bullied. This means that we should be cautious in making judgements about the impact of early attachment on childhood friendships.
The influence of attachments on adult relationships – the role of the internal working model
Research study
As well as childhood friendships, the role of early attachments on adult relationships can be explained through Hazan and Shaver’s study
Hazan and Shaver (1987) decided to study the internal working model. See study below:
Aims and Hypothesis: to explore the possibility that attachment theory offers a perspective on adult romantic love and to create a framework for understanding love, loneliness and grief at different points in the life cycle.
It was predictecd that:
1. There would be a correlation between adults’ attachment styles and the type of parenting they received.
2. Adults with different attachment styles will display different characteristic mental models (internal representations) of themselves and their major social- interaction partners.
Procedure: Hazan and Shaver placed a ‘Love Quiz’ in an American small-town newspaper (Rocky Mountain News). The quiz asked questions about current attachment experiences and about attachment history to identify current and childhood attachment types. The questionnaire also asked about attitudes towards love – an assessment of the internal working model.
Sample 1 - They analysed 620 responses, 205 from men and 415 from women between 14-82 years of age.
Of the sample, 91% were heterosexual, 42% were married, 28% were divorced or widowed, 9% were living in with their partner and 31% were dating (some fitted more than one category)
Sample 2 – 108 students (38 men and 70 women) who answered additional items focussing more on the ‘self’ side of the mental model (as opposed to their partner), as well as items measuring loneliness.
Findings:
The Table below shows the percentage of respondents classified as securely attached, insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant.
Classification % of respondents Response
Securely attached 56 (both samples) I find it easy getting close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t worry about being abandoned or about someone getting close to me.
Insecure -avoidant 23 (sample 1)
25 (sample 2) I am uncomfortable being close to others; I find it difficult to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets close, and love partners want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable being.
Insecure-resistant 19 (sample 1)
20 (sample 2) I find others are reluctant to get as close as I’d like. I worry my partner doesn’t really love me or won’t stay with me. I want to merge completely with another person, and this desire scares other people away.
- In both samples, those described as securely attached described the most important love relationships they ever had as ‘happy, friendly and trusting’. These pps had longer lasting relationships and if they married were not likely to divorce.
- Securely attached pps expressed belief in lasting love. They found others trustworthy and had in their own self as likeable.
- Insecure-avoidant pps were more doubtful about the existence or durability of romantic love. They also maintained that they did not need love partners to be happy. These pps also tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy
- Both insecure types were vulnerable to loneliness; the insecure-resistant (sample 2) being most vulnerable.
Conclusions:
The percentage of adults in the different attachment types match those of children in the Strange Situation studies
The correlation between adults’ attachment style and their memories of parenting styles they received is similar to Ainsworth’s findings, where children’ attachment styles were correlated with the degree of sensitivity shown by mothers.
Adults mental models differ according to attachment styles. Securely attached are more positive and optimistic about themselves and (potential) love partners, compared with either insecurely attached types.
Behaviours influenced by the internal working model
Childhood friendships – the Minnesota child-parent study mentioned in the previous topic found continuity between early attachment and later emotional/social behaviour. Individuals who were classified as securely attached in infancy were highest rated for social competence later in childhood, were less isolated and more popular, and more empathetic. This can be explained in terms of the internal working model because securely attached infants have higher expectations that others are friendly and trusting, and this would enable easier relationships with others.
Poor parenting – Harlow’s research with monkeys also demonstrated a link between poor attachment and later difficulties with parenting. In a study by Quinton et al. (See institutionalisation section – lesson 11) this showed that the same is true in humans. The lack of an internal working model means that individuals lack a reference point to subsequently form relationships with their own children.
Romantic relationships – The study by Hazan and Shaver demonstrated a link between early attachment type and later relationships. Individuals who were securely attached with their parents and longer-lasting romantic relationships.
Mental Health – the lack of an attachment during the critical period in development would result in lack of internal working model. Children with attachment disorder have no preferred attachment figure, an inability to interact and relate to others that is evident before the age of 5, and experience of severe neglect or frequent change of caregivers. For some time a condition called attachment disorder has been recognised but it has recently been classed as a distinct psychiatric condition and included in the DSM.
Other research in internal working model
Belsky (1999) reported that women with childhood secure attachments experienced less conflict with husbands on topics related to time spent together and household division of labour than insecurely attached women.
Bailey et al. (2007) found that attachment types tends to be passed on through generations of a family. 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 –own mother attachment was assessed using an adult attachment interview. The majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers. This suggests that the concept of an internal working model could be genetic/innate?
Evaluation of the influence of early attachment on later relationships: internal working model
Evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed – Internal working models predict continuity between the security of an infant’s attachment and that of its later relationships, i.e. attachment type of infancy is usually the same as that characterising the person’s later relationships. Evidence for this continuity is mixed. Some studies such as Bailey et al (2007) do show that attachment type is passed on through generations e.g, securely attached mothers to their own mothers also had securely attached children. Not all studies however, support the internal working model for example Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents and found there was very little relationships between quality of infant and adolescent attachment. This is a problem because it is not what we expect if the child’s IWM is important for future relationships.
Most studies measuring the IWM have issues of validity – Most studies that test the IWM use self report techniques whereby the parents are replying to questionnaires and interviews. This means that parents may show social desirability bias by making out that they do have a secure relationship with their children – and because very few researchers use the Strange Situation to measure attachment types, it makes it difficult to prove if indeed the attachment patterns are correct. Furthermore parents may be asked about their attachment relationship with their teenagers during early childhood. This is retrospective and parents may forget, lie or exaggerate the kind of attachment they had with their teenagers when they were infants. These methodological issues then affect the validity of the research because information given by the participants may not be entirely accurate.
Association does not mean causality – 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 type in later relationships. 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 effect on both attachment and the child’s ability to form relationships with other people not to forget also that the parental relationship with each other could also be relevant. Alternatively the child’s temperament may influence both infant attachment and the quality of later relationships – in others words, if an infant has a happy and calm temperament it could be that this influences not only the type of attachment relationships with the primary caregiver but also relationships in the future. Thus, research is correlational – because we are looking at early childhood attachments and later relationships, the research can at best be correlational as we can say that there is a relationship between the two but we can’t infer cause and effect.
The influence of early attachment is probabilistic but not definite – it does seem very likely that the quality of infant attachments is an influence on later relationships. Although researchers such as Bowlby and many others have probably exaggerated the significance of the influence. For example Clark and Clark (1998) describe the influence of infant attachment on later relationships as probable but not definite. People are not always doomed to have bad relationships just because they had problems with their attachments in infancy. We could say that they have greater risk of problems although this is a further issue in the sense that we are still being pessimistic about people’s futures. This questions whether on balance is it better to know the risks or is it better to avoid such research because it is potentially damaging?
