influence of early attachment on later relationships ao3

Question 1

Weakness - mixed evidence

Answer 1

P: evidence of importance of iwm is very inconclusive
E: iwm suggests their is continuity between the security of an infants attached and that of its later relationships
E: however attachment research regarding iwm is inconclusive. Eg McCarthy provides evidence to support iwm
On the other hand zimmerman assessed infants attachment types and adolescent attachment to parents and found very little relationship between them.
L: This is not what we would expect if the iwm plays the role that other research suggests in later relationships reducing its validity

Question 2

Weakness - validity issues within research

Answer 2

P: a lot of the research used in attachment has validity issues
E: for example it uses retrospective data and relies on self report techniques
E: most studies don’t use strange situation to study attachments instead using interviews and questionnaires which aren’t conducted in infancy but years later
L: self report techniques are heavily reliant upon honestly of ppts and them having an accurate view of their relationship with their parent/partner which is hard to achieve. Additionally ppts are asked to look back years and years later to accurately remeber their nature of their attachment.
Not a valid way of collecting research

Question 3

Correlation vs causation

Answer 3

P: a weakness of early attachment and influence on later relationships is the issue of correlation vs causation
E: where infant attachment type is associated with the quality of later relationships infant attachment types the implication is that infant attachment types acc causes the attachment later in life
E: however their are alternative explanations for that level of continuity that exists between early attachment and later relationships eg a third factor of parenting styles and individual personality may have had effect of attachment and later relationships
L: just bc their is an correlation the type of early attachment don’t cause the attachment later on in life

Answer 4

P: although it’s Likelu infant attachment affects later relationships researchers have probably exaggerated the signifance of early attachments and the internal working model
E: clarke and clarke 1998 say that it is probable that if you have an insecure attachment style as an infant then you might go on to have a poor relationship with future partners however this is not certain
E: poor quality early attachment doesn’t mean 100% of the time these ppl will have negative future attachments it just means the risk is greater
L: if psychologists emphasise this risk too much it implies that ppl who have had negative ealry attachments will definitely be subject to negative later experiences which is not the case becoming to pessimistic about people’s futures.