the influence of early attachment

Question 1

define the internal working model

Answer 1

a mental model of the world which enables individuals to predict and control their environment. in the case of attachment, the model relates to a person’s expectations about relationship.

Question 1

importance of the internal working model

Answer 1

the quality of the child’s first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships.

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.

Question 2

the key study designed to test the internal working model

Answer 2

hazan and shaver 1987

Question 3

procedure of hazan and shaver 1987

Answer 3

love quiz, asking questions about current attachment experiences and about attachment history to identify current and childhood attachment types.

asked questions about attitudes towards love, an assessment of the internal working model.

analysed from a fair cross-section of the population, 205 men, 415 women.

Question 4

findings

Answer 4

• prevalence of attachment styles was similar to that found in infancy.
• positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences; securely attached adults described their love experiences as happy and trusting. 10 year relationships on average.
• relationship between the conception of love and attachment type- securely attached individuals tended to have a positive internal working model.

Question 5

behaviurs influenced by the internal working model

Answer 5

• poor parenting: the lack of an internal working model means that individuals lack a reference point to subsequently form relationships with their own children. i.e. harlow
• romantic relationships: hazan and shaver demonstrated a link between early attachment type and later relationships. individuals who were securely attached had longer lasting romantic relationships.

Question 6

evaluation points

Answer 6

• reliance on retrospective classification; low correlations
• determinist

Question 7

evaluation weakness point

Answer 7

retrospective classification.
- when adults are asked q’s about their early lives in order to assess infant attachment, recollections are likely to be flawed. memories of the past are not always accurate.

low correlations
- not all research has found a strong positive correlation between early attachments and later relationships.
- fraley conducted a review of 27 samples where infants were assessed in infancy and later reasssesed. he found correlations ranging from .50 to as low as .10; pulling down the overall correlations.

• low correlations pose a significant challenge to attachment research, as they do not suggest that attachment type is very stable.

Question 8

counter

Answer 8

longitudinal studies support hazan and shaver’s findings.

ongoing longitudinal study: simpson et al found participants were securely attached as infants were rated as having higher social competence as children, were closer to their friends at age 16, and were more expressive and emotionally attached to their romantic partners in early adulthood.

these studies support the view that attachment type does predict relationships in adult life and may offer a more accurate representation of early attachment influences.

Question 9

evaluation weakness

Answer 9

overly determinist.

hazan and shaver suggests that very early experiences have a fixed effect on later adult relationships i.e….

fortunately not the case as researchers have found plenty of instances where participants were experiencing happy adult relationships despite not having been securely attached as infants.