Section 3 : Attachment - Early Attachments And Later Relationships Flashcards
What did Bowlby’s internal working model look at
How childhood attachments influence adult relationship
Give an example of the internal working model
If a child has a secure attachment to a sensitive caregiver, they are likely to see themselves as worthy of being loved. They are then likely to form future secure relationships. Same goes for insecure attachments to caregivers
What was the method of Hazan and Shaver 1987
- Conducted a love quiz in local newspaper, quiz had two parts
- first part assessed the attachment type of each person with their parents
- the second part involved questions asking about their current beliefs about romantic love
What was the results of Hazan and Shaver 1987
- first 620 responses were analysed
- found that there was a correlation between they type of childhood attachment and peoples later views on romantic love
- secure children were more likely to have happy trustworthy relationships
- insecure avoidant children ended up fearing intimacy
- insecure resistant children were more likely to be worried that they weren’t loved in their relationship
What was the conclusion of Hazan and Shaver 1987
Their findings provide support for Bowlby’s internal working model - that early attachments do influence adult relationships
What are the evaluations of Hazan vs Shaver 1987
- relied on people thinking back to their childhood - not always accurate
- used volunteer sample so a certain type of person might be more likely to respond
- people may have answered untruthfully
- they repeated the study in 2003 and found similar results
What is the adult attachment interview
A way to try and scientifically assess relationship between early childhood attachments and later adult attachments
What did Main et al 1985 - the adult attachment interview show
That the categories of adult relationships could be predicted from peoples recall of their childhood attachments
What is the cycle of privation
Where children who experience privation go on to have difficulties caring for their own children
What did Quinton Et al 1984 find
- That women raised in institutions were more likely to have parenting difficulties later in life
- supports cycle of privation
- so their children are deprived of a strong maternal attachment and therefore less caring
What did Parker and Forrest 1993 outline
A rare serious condition, occurs in children permanently damaged by early experiences e.g. privation, called reactive attachment disorder
What are the symptoms of reactive attachment disorder
- can’t give or receive affection
- dishonesty
- poor social relationships
- involvement in crime