Influence of early attachment on later relationships

Question 1

What are childhood relationships?

Answer 1

Childhood relationships refer to affiliations with other people in childhood, including friends and classmates, and with adults such as teachers.

Question 2

What are adult relationships?

Answer 2

Adult relationships refer to those relationships the child goes on to have later in life. These include friendships and working relationships but most critically relationships with romantic partners and the person’s own children.

Question 3

Bowlby proposed the idea of an internal working model. What is an internal working model?

Answer 3

Internal working models refer to 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 4

Broadly speaking, how can an internal working model affect future relationships?

Answer 4

In 1969, John Bowlby suggested that a child having their first relationship with their primary attachment figure forms a mental representation of this relationship. This internal working model acts as a template for future relationships. The quality of the child’s first attachment is therefore crucial because this template will affect the nature of their future relationships.

Question 5

If a child’s first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver, what are their future relationships likely to look like?

Answer 5

A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to assume that this is how relationships are meant to be. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them (ie. without being too uninvolved or being too emotionally close).

Question 6

If a child’s first experience of attachment is dysfunctional, what are their future relationships likely to look like?

Answer 6

A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences into later relationships. This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place or they may not behave properly when they have them. This could lead an individual to display type A or type C behaviour towards friends and partners.

Question 7

How is attachment type associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood?

Answer 7

Securely attached infants tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached infants later have relationship difficulties (Kerns, 1994).

Question 8

Infants with which attachment type are likely to form the best quality childhood friendships?

Answer 8

Securely attached infants are likely to form the best quality childhood friendships.

Question 9

Infants with which attachment type are likely to have relationship difficulties in later life?

Answer 9

Insecurely attached infants are likely to have relationship difficulties in their later life.

Question 10

What type of specific behaviour can be predicted by attachment type?

Answer 10

Bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type.

Question 11

Who assessed the association between attachment type and bullying behaviour?

Answer 11

Rowan Myron-Wilson and Peter Smith (1998) assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London.

Question 12

According to Myron-Wilson and Smith’s findings, what type of children were unlikely to be involved in bulling?

Answer 12

Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying.

Question 13

According to Myron-Wilson and Smith’s findings, what type of children were the most likely to be victims of bullying?

Answer 13

Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims of bullying.

Question 14

According to Myron-Wilson and Smith’s findings, what type of children were most likely to be the bullies?

Answer 14

Insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies.

Question 15

Who studied relationships with romantic partners in adulthood?

Answer 15

Gerard McCarthy (1999)

Question 16

How did McCarthy investigate relationships with romantic patterns in adulthood?

Answer 16

McCarthy studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type.

Question 17

According to McCarthy’s findings, what type of people went on to have the best adult friendships and romantic relationships?

Answer 17

Those assessed as securely attached infants has the best adult friendships and romantic relationships.

Question 18

According to McCarthy’s findings, what type of people had trouble maintaining friendships in later life?

Answer 18

Adults classed as insecure-resistant as infants had particular problems maintaining friendships.

Question 19

According to McCarthy’s findings, what type of people later struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships?

Answer 19

Those classed as insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.

Question 20

In 1987, which two psychologists conducted a classic study of the association between attachment and adult relationships?

Answer 20

Hazan and Shaver conducted a study of the association between attachment and adult relationships.

Question 21

What was the procedure adopted by Hazan and Shaver?

Answer 21

They analysed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz had three sections:

• An assessment of the
  respondents’ current or
  most important
  relationship
• An assessment of general
  love experiences such as
  number of partners

- An assessment of 
  attachment type by asking 
  respondents to choose 
  which of three statements 
  best described their
  feelings

Question 22

What percentage of Hazan and Shaver’s respondents were identified as securely attached?

Answer 22

56% of respondents were identified as securely attached. Those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic experiences.

Question 23

What percentage of Hazan and Shaver’s respondents were identified as insecure-avoidant?

Answer 23

25% of the respondents identified as insecure-avoidant. Avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy.

Question 24

What percentage of Hazan and Shaver’s respondents were identified as insecure-resistant?

Answer 24

19% of respondents identified as insecure-resistant. Avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy.

Question 25

What was concluded from Hazan and Shaver’s study?

Answer 25

From their findings it was concluded that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships.

Question 26

How do internal working models affect the child’s ability to parent their own children?

Answer 26

People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family.

For example, Bailey et al. conducted a study where they considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers. Mother-baby attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation and mother-own mother attachment was assessed using an adult attachment interview. The majority of women had the same attachment classification to their babies and their own mothers.