influence of early attachment on later relationships

Question 1

childhood relationships definition

Answer 1

affiliations with other people in childhood, including friends and classmates, and with adults such as teachers

Question 2

adult relationships definition

Answer 2

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

Question 3

internal working model definition

Answer 3

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

Question 4

who came up with the internal working model

Answer 4

Bowlby

Question 5

what did Bowlby suggest - internal working model

Answer 5

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

Question 6

how does first attachment influence later relationships -internal working model

Answer 6

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

Question 7

effect of positive internal working model on later relationships

Answer 7

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

Question 8

effect of negative internal working model on later relationships

Answer 8

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

Question 9

what is attachment type associated with

Answer 9

quality of peer relationships in childhood

Question 10

securely attached babies in childhood friendships

Answer 10

tend to go on and form the best quality childhood relationships

Question 11

insecurely attached babies in childhood friendships

Answer 11

friendship difficulties (kerns 1994)

Question 12

how did Myron-Wilson and smith 1998 asses attachment type and bullying involvement

Answer 12

standard questionnaires in 196 child aged 7-11 from London

Question 13

what did Myron-Wilson and smith 1998 asses attachment type and bullying involvement findings

Answer 13

-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

Question 14

what does the internal working model affect in adult relationships

Answer 14

-romantic relationships
-parental relationships with own children

Question 15

secure attachments as adult friendships and romantic relationships

Answer 15

best adult friendships and romantic relationships

Question 16

insecure-resistant babies as adults

Answer 16

particular problems maintaining friendships

Question 17

insecure-avoidant babies and adults

Answer 17

struggled with intimacy on romantic relationships

Question 18

who did research on 40 adult women who had been assessed as a attachment type as a baby

Answer 18

McCarthy

Question 19

who did the love quiz

Answer 19

Hazan and Shaver 1987

Question 20

what is the procedure for the love quiz

Answer 20

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

Question 21

first stage of the love quiz

Answer 21

the first assessed the respondents current or most important relationships

Question 22

second stage of the love quiz

Answer 22

assessed general love experiences such as number of partners

Question 23

what does the third stage of the love quiz assess

Answer 23

3rd section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of 3 statements best described their feelings

Question 24

findings and conclusions of the love quiz

Answer 24

-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

Question 25

how does internal working mode affect child’s ability to parent

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Bailey et al study

Answer 26

-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

Question 27

strength of influence of early attachment on later relationships - research support

Answer 27

-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

Question 28

limitation of influence of early attachment on later relationships - counterpoint to research support

Answer 28

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

Question 29

limitation of influence of early attachment on later relationships - validity issues with retrospective studies

Answer 29

-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

Question 30

limitation of influence of early attachment on later relationships - confounding variables

Answer 30

-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

Question 31

evaluation of influence of early attachment on later relationships - balancing opportunity and risk

Answer 31

-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