influence of early attachment on later relationships Flashcards
childhood relationships definition
affiliations with other people in childhood, including friends and classmates, and with adults such as teachers
adult relationships definition
those relationships the child goes on to have later in life as an adult. these include friendships and working relationships but most critically relationship with romantic partners and the person’s own children
internal working model definition
our mental representations of the world such as the representation we have to our primary attachment figure. this model affects out future relationships because it carries our perception of what relationships are like
who came up with the internal working model
Bowlby
what did Bowlby suggest - internal working model
a baby’s first relationship with their primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation of this relationship. this internal working model acts as a template for future childhood and adult relationships
how does first attachment influence later relationships -internal working model
baby’s first attachment is critical because this template will powerfully affect the nature of the future relationships. a baby whose first experience is if a loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure will tend to assume this is how all relationships are meant to be
effect of positive internal working model on later relationships
assume this is how all relationships are meant to be. will seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them without being to uninvolved or emotionally close such as insecure-avoidant or being controlling or argumentative such as in insecure-resistant attachment
effect of negative internal working model on later relationships
child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to later relationships. this may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place or they may not behave appropriately within relationships, displaying insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant behvaiour towards friends and partners
what is attachment type associated with
quality of peer relationships in childhood
securely attached babies in childhood friendships
tend to go on and form the best quality childhood relationships
insecurely attached babies in childhood friendships
friendship difficulties (kerns 1994)
how did Myron-Wilson and smith 1998 asses attachment type and bullying involvement
standard questionnaires in 196 child aged 7-11 from London
what did Myron-Wilson and smith 1998 asses attachment type and bullying involvement findings
-securely attached were very unlikely to be involved in bullying
-insecure-avoidant were most likely to be victims
-insecure-resistant most likely to be bullies
what does the internal working model affect in adult relationships
-romantic relationships
-parental relationships with own children
secure attachments as adult friendships and romantic relationships
best adult friendships and romantic relationships
insecure-resistant babies as adults
particular problems maintaining friendships
insecure-avoidant babies and adults
struggled with intimacy on romantic relationships
who did research on 40 adult women who had been assessed as a attachment type as a baby
McCarthy
who did the love quiz
Hazan and Shaver 1987
what is the procedure for the love quiz
analysed 620 replies to a love quiz printed in an American local newspaper. the Quiz had 3 sections. the first assessed the respondents current or most important relationships. the second assessed general love experiences such as number of partners. 3rd section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of 3 statements best described their feelings
first stage of the love quiz
the first assessed the respondents current or most important relationships
second stage of the love quiz
assessed general love experiences such as number of partners
what does the third stage of the love quiz assess
3rd section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of 3 statements best described their feelings
findings and conclusions of the love quiz
-56% were identified as securely attached
-25% insecure-avoidant
-19% insecure-resistant
-those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have a good and longer-lasting romantic experiences. the avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy. these findings suggest that patterns of attachment behvaiour are reflected in romantic relationships
how does internal working mode affect child’s ability to parent
people tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model as attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family
Bailey et al study
-considered attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers. mother-baby attachment was assessed using the strange situation and mothers attachment to their own mother was assessed using and adult attachment interview, the majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and own mothers
strength of influence of early attachment on later relationships - research support
-supporting evidence
-looked at studies linking attachment to later development, reviews of such evidence (feron 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 aspect later development. so whilst insecure-avoidant attachment seems to convey fairly mild disadvantages for any aspect if development. disorganised attachment is strongly associated with later mental disorder –> means secure attachment as a baby appears to convey advantages for future development while disorganised attachment appears to seriously disadvantage children
limitation of influence of early attachment on later relationships - counterpoint to research support
not all evidence supports the existence of close links between early attachment and later development. for example, 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 –> means that it is not clear to what extent he quality of early research really predicts later development. there may be other important factors
limitation of influence of early attachment on later relationships - validity issues with retrospective studies
-most research into the influence is that early attachment is assessed retrospectively
-most research on the link between early attachment and later development are not longitudinal. 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 in 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 –> means that the measures of early attachment used in most studies may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless
limitation of influence of early attachment on later relationships - confounding variables
-existence of confounding variables
-some studies do assess attachment in infancy ( such as McCarthy) , 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 be influenced both attachment quality and later development. alternatively genetically-influenced personality may be an influence on both factors –> means that we can never be entirely sure that is is early attachment an don’t some other factor that influencing later development
evaluation of influence of early attachment on later relationships - balancing opportunity and risk
-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 relationship because of their early attachment experiences. it may be more likely but a host of other factors are involved
- by knowing someone’s attachment status we have an opportunity to intervene and help their development. however, we may also have an become too pessimistic and create a self-fulfilling prophecy
