INFLUENCE OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON LATER RELATIONSHIPS

Question 1

Internal working model ( Bowlby )

Answer 1

• 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 2

good attachment = good relationship expectations

Answer 2

• a childs whose first exp is a loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure assumes this is how all relationships are meant to be.
• they will then seek out functional relationshops and behave functional within them

Question 3

bad relationships

Answer 3

• those with bad exp of their first attach will bring these exp to bear on later relationships
• they may struggle to form relationships in the first place or they do not behave apropiatley within them

Question 4

childhood links with friendship and bullying.

Answer 4

• kerns argued that securley attached babies then to form best quality of childhood freindships
• securley attached children are less likely to be involved in bullying.
• wheresas wilson and smith suggested insecure resistance children are more likely to be bullies.

Question 5

adulthoood links with parenting styles and romantic relationships

Answer 5

• ppl base their parenting on the internal working model
• bailey et al found that the majority of mothers has the same attachment classification to their babies as they has to their own mothers.

Question 6

what was hazan and shavers aim?

Answer 6

• analysed responses to a questionnaire termed the ‘love quiz’
• it was designed to see if attachment types in infancy influence friendships and adult relationships

Question 7

what was hazan and shavers procedure?

Answer 7

• published in local american newspaper, received 620 volunteer responses, by asking respondents to choose which of the three statements best described their feelings

Question 8

define three aspects of relation h&s

Answer 8

• current and most important relationship
• general love exp
• attachment type

Question 9

what was hazan and shaver’s findings?

Answer 9

• 56% of respondents identified, as secure 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant,
• secure = most likely to have long and loving romantic relationships.
• insecure-avoidant = jealousy and fear of intimacy.
• insecure-resistant = shorter relationships in adulthood, six years compared to secure
• who averaged 10 years or more.

Question 10

what was hazan and shaver’s conclusion?

Answer 10

• specific attachment type behaviours are reflected in adult romantic relationships as internal working model formed in infancy that guides expectations

Question 11

what is a strength - research support for impact on adult relationship

Answer 11

• many research shows a link between early attachment on future relationships
• fearson and roisman concluded that infants attachment influenced developement in many ways. disorganised attachment was most predictive
• suggests that insecure attachment appears to convey a dis of child development

Question 12

what is a limitation (counter-argument) - research support for impact on adult relationship

Answer 12

• not all research shows link
  between attachment and later development
• regensburg longitudinal study
• becker et al found no evidence of contuinity of attachment type from age 1-16 years
• not clear on how attachment impacts later relation

Question 13

what is a limitation - methodological

Answer 13

• validity of measures questionable, hazer and shaver used a questionnaire and people may not have answered truthfully so we cant make a connection between early attachment and relationship experiences
• self-reports have also been criticized for being unreliable due to retrospective assessment
• adults may not report with consistency as it is difficult to recall accurately

Question 14

final limitation is that the effects of early attachment type on later relationships are correlational, we cannot make statements of cause and effect

Answer 14

• kagen suggests temperament is a more important influence on behaviour in the strange situation rather than attachment type
• so it could be that link between early attachment and later relationships is also mediated by temperament.
• challenges validity of relationship between early attachments and later adult relationships

Question 15

one limitation of research into effects of early attachment on later relationships is that there is opposing research

Answer 15

• For example, Zimmerman found there was very little relationship between the quality of infant and adolescent attachment.
• This suggests that the law of continuity is not entirely correct as a person’s primary attachment is not the base of all other attachments.
• This questions the law of continuity, showing it does not have full control over your future.
• Therefore, this decreases the validity of the theory Internal Working Model and Locus of Control