Influence Of Early Attachment On Later Relationships

Question 1

For influence of early attachment on later relationships what is the key idea we need to know?

Answer 1

The internal working model

Question 2

What is an internal working model?

Answer 2

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 3

Explain how an internal working model works

Answer 3

• first attachment forms a template for future relationships- the quality of a child’s first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their first relationship; this is due to the influence of the internal working model created by that first attachment
• good experience of attachment= good relationship expectation- a child will seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them due to their loving relationship with their reliable caregiver
• bad experience of attachment = bad relationship expectations- a child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bear these on later relationships = child may struggle to form relationships in the first place or the child does not behave appropriately within them

Question 4

What studies have shown that secure infants form better friendships and are less likely to bully?

Answer 4

Past attachment experiences are related to relationships in later childhood:

1- securely attached infants go on to form the best quality friendships = Kerns, 1994
2- found that securely attached infants are less likely to be involved in bullying = Smith, 1998 —> insecure-avoidant children were most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant were most likely to be bullies

Question 5

Explain how the internal working model affects later parenting styles

Answer 5

• internal working model also affects the child’s ability to parent their own children
• people tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model and thus attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family

Question 6

What was the study done to see if the internal working model affects later parenting styles?

Answer 6

Bailey et al (2007)- considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers. The majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers

Question 7

What’s the main study we need to know for influence of early attachment on later relationships?

Answer 7

Hazan and Shaver (1987) the ‘Love Quiz’ study

Question 8

What was the aim of Hazan and Shaver’s (1987) the ‘Love Quiz’ study?

Answer 8

To investigate whether attachment type in infancy is reflected in romantic relationships?

Question 9

What was the procedure of Hazan and Shaver’s (1987) the ‘Love Quiz’ study?

Answer 9

• conducted a study of the association between attachment and adult relationships. Using a volunteer sample they analysed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ printed in an American newspaper
• the quiz had 3 sections assessing different aspects of relationships:
  🤖respondents’ current and most important relationship
  🤖general love experiences
  🤖attachment type (by asking them to noose statements that best described their feelings)

Question 10

What were the findings and conclusions from Hazan and Shaver’s (1987) the ‘Love Quiz’ study?

Answer 10

• 56% securely attached
• 25% insecure-avoidant
• 19% insecure-resistant

This mirrors the kind of distribution found in many studies of infant attachment behaviour e.g. Ainsworth’s original data and Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta-analysis (1988) of cultural variations

Conclusions:

• attachment type in infancy was reflected in their romantic relationships
• secure respondents were the most likely to have good and longer-lasting romantic relationships
• avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy

Question 11

What are the evaluation points for influence of early attachment on later relationships?

Answer 11

❌ several studies suggest an association between infant attachment type and later relationships but correlation does not mean causality. In fact, there are alternative explanations to the internal working model for the continuity that often occurs between infant and later relationships. For example, the child’s temperament may influence both infant attachment and the quality of later relationships. This is a limitation because it counter’s Bowlby’s view that the internal working model caused these later outcomes

❌ some psychologists argue that attachment researchers have over-exaggerated the influence of infant attachment on later relationships- Clarke and Clarke (1998) describe the influence of infant attachment on later relationships as probabilistic i.e. people are not always guaranteed bad future relationships just because they had attachment issues- they simply have a greater risk of problems. By emphasising this risk, we may become too pessimistic about people’s futures.

❌ there is a problem with most research related to internal working models as they’re unconscious; we are not directly aware of their influence upon us. Therefore, we would not really expect to get direct evidence about them through self-report methods (interviews and questionnaires) which require conscious awareness. So when participants self-report on their relationship they are relying on their conscious understanding of those relationships- at best, self-reports give us indirect evidence about internal working models = potential limitation of most research involving the concept of internal working model

❌ the evidence on continuity of attachment is mixed- internal working models predict continuity between an infant and its caregiver’s attachment and the infant’s future relationships, but not all studies support this theory. For example, Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. There was very little association between the quality of infant and adolescent attachment= problem because it is not what we would expect if internal working models were important in development

❌ most studies of attachment have issues with validity- most studies of attachment to primary caregiver do not make use of the strange situation but assess infant-parent attachment by means of self-report techniques e.g. questionnaire, not in infancy, but later years. The internal validity of questionnaires and interviews is limited because they depend on respondents being honest ne having a realistic view of their relationship. A related problem concerns the retrospective nature of assessment of infant attachment. Looking back in adulthood at one’s early attachment probably lacks validity because it relies on accurate recollection