Lesson 8 - Influence of early attachments on later relationships

Question 1

Who proposed the internal working model?

Answer 1

Bowlby (1969)

Question 2

What is the internal working model?

Answer 2

A template formed from the early attachments made in infancy that form a model of what future relationships would look like. This enables the infant to understand and influence their caregiver’s behaviour and form future intimate relationships

Question 3

Sroufe et al (2005)

Answer 3

The Minnesota child-parent experiment

• Supports early attachment on childhood relationships
• Infants who were classed as securely attached in infancy were generally more popular, less isolated and more empathetic later on.
• This could be explained as infants who have a strong internal working model have higher expectations that others will be friendly and trusting, therefore they form better relationships.

Question 4

Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998)

Answer 4

• Supports early attachment on childhood relationships
• Investigated attachment types and bullying involvement among 196 children aged 7-11 in London.
• They used standard questionnaires
• Securely attached children were less likely to be involved in bullying
• Insecure avoidant children were likely to be victims of bullying
• Insecure resistant children were most likely to be bullies themselves
• This is due to the lack of a strong internal working model

Question 5

Strengths of early attachments on childhood relationships

Answer 5

• Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998)
• Minnesota child-parent experiment (2005), strong validity as it is a longitudinal study and studies children throughout a long period of time.

Question 6

Weaknesses of early attachments on childhood relationships

Answer 6

• Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998) does have methodological issues, such as the use of standard questionnaires, as this leads to social desirability bias. The children may have lied about having a secure attachment to make them look better, or lied about being bullied or being bullies as to not make themselves look bad

Question 7

Hazan and Shaver (1987)

Answer 7

• Supports early attachments on adult relationships
• They placed a ‘Love Quiz’ in an American small town newspaper.
• It asked about their current attachment experiences and about their attachment history to create an image of each persons childhood and current attachments.
• It also asked about attitudes towards love
• They had two samples. They got responses from 205 men and 415 women between 14-82 years old.
• Of this total of 620, 91% were straight, 42% were married, 28% were divorced/widowed, 9% living with their partner and 31% were dating
• The second sample was 108 students who also answered additional questions about themselves as opposed to their partner as well as their level of loneliness
• 56% of both samples were securely attached
• 23% (sample 1) and 25% (sample 2) were insecure-avoidant
• 19% (sample 1) and 20% (sample 2) were insecure-resistant
• The results of this experiment were similar to the results of Ainsworth and Bell (1970).

Question 8

Weaknesses of early attachments on adult relationships

Answer 8

• Evidence for continuity is mixed. Bailey et al (2007) also shows that attachment types are passed on, however Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant and adolescent relationships and found very little link between qualities of each. This is not what we expect of the internal working model
• The use of self-reports weakens the validity of studies surrounding the internal working model. These can lead to social desirability bias, as you may exaggerate certain aspects of your relationships with your child for example, to make you look securely attached. You may be asked about your relations with your child as an infant, which may be a long time ago, and you may forget or exaggerate things. Overall, this weakens the validity of the IWM
• There are other explanations for continuity that are not causation. The child may have had a calm temperament or otherwise. The relationship between both parents is also important as well as parenting style
• The research sentences people to poor relationships in the future purely due to their childhood ones. While this is likely, and it is fair to say that you are at greater risk, the research could be seen as damaging and pessimistic.

Question 9

Strengths of early attachments on adult relationships

Answer 9

• Harlow’s study on rhesus monkeys showed that monkeys raised in captivity were terrible parents when they had their own offspring. This is also supported by Quinton et al in humans.
• Hazan and Shaver and the ‘Love Quiz’ show a link between early attachment types and the quality of romantic relationships
• Belsky (1999) showed that women who had secure childhood attachments were less likely to argue with their husbands about distribution of house work and the amount of time spent together
• Bailey et al (2007) assessed 99 mothers and babies and the mothers with their own mothers and found that those with secure mother-baby relationships had good relationships with their own mothers.