influence of early attachments on later relationships Flashcards
what did Bowlby say about a baby’s first relationship?
baby’s first relationship with their primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation for relationships
the internal working model - acts as a template for future childhood and adult relationships - the quality of a baby’s first attachment = crucial - affect the nature of future childhood/ adult relationships
baby whose relationship with primary caregiver is loving and reliable will tend to assume that this is how relationships are meant to be - seeking out functional relationships
Child with bad experience of first attachment will bring forward these problems in future relationships (struggling to form relationships/ not behaving appropriately etc)
e.g. not being too uninvolved or emotionally close (insecure avoidant attachment)
too controlling and argumentative (insecure-resistant attachment)
relationships in childhood
securely attached babies - tend to have best quality childhood friendships
insecurely attached babies have friendship difficulties (Kerns)
bullying behaviour - can be predicted by attachment type
Myron-Wilson and Smith - assessed attachment type +bullying involvement using questionnaires in 196 children (7-11, London)
secure children - very unlikely to be involved in bullying
insecure avoidant - most likely to be victims
insecure resistant - most likely to be bullies
relationships in adulthood
Internal working model affects romantic relationships and parental relationships with own children
Study by Hazan and Shaver, another by McCarthy studied 40 adult women - assessed when they were babies to find early attachment type
those who were secure A had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships
Insecure Resistant as babies had problems maintaining friendships
Insecure avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships
IWM - affects child’s ability to parent their own children - people base their parenting style on their IWM
Study by Bailey - considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and own mothers - (mother -baby assessed using Strange Situation) and mother to own mother assessed using adult attachment interview.
Majority of women had same attachment classification both to babies and own mother
strength - research support
strength of research into attachment affects on later relationships - supporting evidence
reviews of evidence e.g. Fearon and Roisman concluded that early attachment consistently predicts later attachment, emotional wellbeing and attachment to own children
the strength of relationship is between early attachment type and later development depending on both the attachment type and aspect of later development
so while insecure avoidant attachment conveys mild disadvantages for development, disorganised attachment is strongly associated with later mental disorders
means - secure A baby conveys advantages for future development , disorganised attachment has seriously disadvantaged children
Counterpoint
not all research support the existence of close links between early attachment and later development
e.g. Resenburg longitudinal study followed 43 people from one year old
age 16, attachment was assessed - using adult attachment interview - no evidence of continuity
meaning - not clear what extent the quality of early attachment really predicts later development - may be other important factors
limitation - issues with retrospective studies
limitation of most research into influence of attachment is early attachment is assessed retrospectively
most research of links between early attachment and later development not longitudinal - instead, researcher ask adolescent/ adult participants questions about their relationships with their parents - to identify attachment type
= validity problems - asking questions relies on honesty / accurate perception of pp , and hard to know whether what is assessed is early attachment or adult attachment
means measures of early attachment in most studies may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless.
limitation of studies
limitation of studies into the influence of early attachment to later on development - confounding variables
- studies which assess attachment in infancy means the early attachment is valid
BUT, these studies may have validity problems because associations between attachment quality and later development may be affected by confounding variables
e.g. parenting style - influence both attachment quality and later development
also genetically influenced personality can be an influence on both factors
means that we can never be entirely sure that it is early attachment and not other factors that influence later development
extra
insecure attachment does not necessarily cause increased risk of later development - but it may be more likely
knowing someone’s attachment may enable intervention to help their development
but this can also become pessimistic and create a self- fulfilling prophecy
