The Influence Of Early Attachment Flashcards
What is the internal working model?
Bowlby- similar to a schema - e.g an infant learns about a relationship from experience. This can be directly through their relationships with parents or it can be observed and they learn about different types of relationships by watching family members interact.
Who researched the influence of early attachment?
Hazen and shaver
What was hazen and shaver’s aim?
To investigate whether styles of adult romantic relationships were related to early attachment
What was hazen and shavers method?
620 responses to a questionnaire called the love quiz were assessed. The respondents aged from 14-82
The questionnaire measured
Early attachment through asking questions about the relationship with parents
Beliefs about romantic love e.g how much trust there was in a romantic relationship
What were hazen and shavers results?
Secure attachment- these respondents had happy and trusting love relationships. They had lasting relationships and were accepting of their partners
Insecure resistant- these participants worried that their parents didn’t really look he them. They experienced love as extreme highs and lows
Insecure avoidant- these participants feared intimacy
What was hazen and shavers conclusion?
There appears to be a consistent relationship between early attachment type and later adult styles of romantic love, supporting the idea of the internal working model
What are behaviours that could be influenced by the internal working model?
Childhood friendships
Poor parenting
Romantic relationships
Mental health
How could internal working model influence childhood friendships?
Securely attached infants have higher expectations that others are friendly and this would enable easier relationships with others
How could poor parenting influence internal working model?
Lack of good parenting makes it difficult to form attachments with their own children, as never truly have a good relationship
How can the internal working model influence romantic relationships?
Individuals with secure attachments had longer lasting romantic relationships
How could internal working model influence mental health?
Children with attachment disorders have no preferred attachment figures so they cannot relate to others
Why is the fact the the love quiz is correlational flaw the study?
The research links early attachments with later relationships and experiences and there is many confounding variables that may have had an effect on the individuals adulthood. For example it cannot be assumed that an insecure attachment as a child caused unstable relationships as an adult. Therefore this research has difficulty establishing a cause and effect of a relationship
Why could the fact the love quiz relies on the participants retrospective recollection be a problem?
For example, asking adults questions about their early lives in a method of research used. This is likely to be flawed because an individuals memory isn’t entirely accurate. If the research is conducted over a long period of time, memories may fade and are not as clear as they were originally. As a result it cannot be assumed that all collected data is completely true. Thus the research may lack internal validity
