Influence of Early Attachments on Later Relationships

Question 1

What similarities are there between later relationships and early attachments?

Answer 1

We seek safety and comfort in both figures, engagement in close, intimate, bodily contact, feeling insecure without the figure, sharing discoveries with one another, showing a mutual fascination in one another, engage in ‘baby talk’.

Question 2

Kerns (1994) - Summary

Answer 2

Found attachment type is associated with quality of peer relationships in childhood. Securely attached infants go on to form the best quality childhood friendships, whereas insecurely attached infants later have friendship difficulties.

Question 3

Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998) - Summary

Answer 3

Assessed attachment type and bullying involvement. Secure children were unlikely to be involved. Insecure-avoidant were likely to be victims. Insecure-resistant were most likely to be the bullies.

Question 4

McCarthy (1999) - Summary

Answer 4

Studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type. Securely attached infants had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships. Insecure-resistant infants had problems maintaining adult relationships. Insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships and forming close friendships.

Question 5

Hazan and Shaver (1987) - Aim

Answer 5

To investigate association between attachment and adult relationships, to find out if romantic love in adults shows the same attachment style as found in children.

Question 6

Hazan and Shaver (1987) - Procedure

Answer 6

Put a survey in the newspaper, presented as a ‘love quiz’. 620 responses were analysed, 42% were married, 31% dating. Questions were about fear of closeness, obsessive preoccupation, and jealousy.

Question 7

Hazan and Shaver (1987) - Findings

Answer 7

56% securely attached, 25% insecure-avoidant, 19% insecure-resistant.

Question 8

Hazan and Shaver (1987) - Conclusion

Answer 8

Results reflect the findings of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation, suggests infant attachment is associated with later attachments.

Question 9

What theory is the influence of early attachments on later relationships linked to?

Answer 9

Bowlby’s Internal Working Model

Question 10

Bailey et al. (2007) - Summary

Answer 10

Studied the attachment of 99 mothers to their babies and their own mothers. They were assessed using the Strange Situatuon procedure, and were interviewed. The majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers.

Question 11

What other studies support the influence of early attachment on later relationships?

Answer 11

Harlow’s animal study on monkeys. The baby monkeys he researched grew up without a real attachment figure, and when they later had children, they were inadequate parents, with some even killing their offspring.

Question 12

Strengths of Early Attachment on Later Relationships

Answer 12

• Research into early attachments can help educate new parents/carers about caring for their child, such as the use of daycare.
• Supporting evidence from Clarke and Clarke (1998) - described influence of infant attachment as probabilistic. Attachment problems don’t mean people are doomed to have bad relationships, simply a greater risk of problems.

Question 13

Limitations of Early Attachments on Later Relationships

Answer 13

• May lack validity, as we cannot say that early attachment style causes later attachment styles, we can only see a correlation, not causation.
• Assessing attachment with interviews or questionnaires causes validity problems due to social desirability bias and other issues.
• Research often involves participants thinking retrospectively about their early childhood memories, making it difficult for recall to be entirely accurate, lowering the validity.
• Contradictory evidence from Zimmerman (2000) - assessed infant attachment type and adolescents. Little relationship found between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.
• The Internal Working Model is unconscious, yet we use self-report techniques which rely on conscious understanding of relationships.