The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships

Question 1

What are childhood relationships?

Answer 1

Affiliations with other people in childhood, including friends and classmates and with adults such as teachers

Question 2

What are adult relationships?

Answer 2

Those relationships the child goes on to have later in life as an adult. These include friendships and working relationships but most critically relationships with romantic partners and person’s own children.

Question 3

Define internal working model

Answer 3

Our mental representations of the world, e.g. the representation we have of our relationship to our primary attachment figure. This model affects our future relationships because it carries our perception of what relationships are like.

Question 4

What did Bowlby suggest?

Answer 4

A baby’s first relationship with their primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation of this relationship. This internal working model acts as a template for future child and adult relationships.

Question 5

Explain why the quality of a baby’s first attachment is important?

Answer 5

Because this template will affect the nature of future relationships.

Question 6

Explain the impact of a positive/reliable first attachment.

Answer 6

A baby whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure will tend to assume this is how relationships are meant to be. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them e.g. without being too emotionally close (insecure-avoidant attachment) or being controlling/argumentative (insecure-resistant attachment).

Question 7

Explain the impact of a negative/unreliable first attachment.

Answer 7

A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to bear on later relationships. This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place or they may not behave appropriately within relationships, displaying insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant behaviour towards friends and partners.

Question 8

What is attachment type associated with?

Answer 8

the quality of peer relationships in childhood

Question 9

What did Kerns find?

Answer 9

Securely attached infants are more inclined to have good quality peer relationships during childhood whilst infants with insecure attachment types are likely to have difficulties with making or maintaining friendships.

Question 10

What did Scroufe et al do (2005)?

Answer 10

Conducted the Minesota child-parent study and found that infants who were rated high in social competence during childhood were more empathetic, popular and felt less isolated.

Question 11

How can Scroufe’s research be understood?

Answer 11

By considering the role of the internal working model since infants who are securely attached will have positive expectations that others whom they relate to will be trustworthy and friendly in return, which provides the ideal platform for interacting with others during childhood.

Question 12

What did Wilson and Peter do?

Answer 12

assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children ages 7-11 from London.

Question 13

What did Wilson and Peter find?

Answer 13

Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying. Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies.

Question 14

What two major adult experiences does internal working model affect?

Answer 14

Romantic relationships
Parental relationships with your own children

Question 15

What are parenting styles based on?

Answer 15

Personal experience and expectations of the internal working model, so attachment type tends to be passed down through generations of a family.

Question 16

Who looked at relationships in childhood?

Answer 16

Bailey et al

Question 17

What did Bailey et al do (2007)?

Answer 17

Looked at the attachment type of nearly 100 mothers and their infants (assessed in the strange situation) with the relationships they had with their own mothers (established in an interview).

Question 18

What did Bailey find?

Answer 18

A vast proportion of the women had the same attachment type to their infant as their own mother, supporting the concept of internal working model influencing parental style.

Question 19

How does Harlow’s study support Bailey’s findings?

Answer 19

Monkeys with poor or no attachments were seen to experience difficulties with parenting because of their early, formative experiences.

Question 20

Who studied relationships in adulthood?

Answer 20

Hazan and Shaver (1987)

Question 21

What was the aim of Hazan and Shaver’s study?

Answer 21

Conducted a study to see the association between attachment and adult relationships.

Question 22

Describe Hazan + Shaver’s procedure

Answer 22

They analysed 620 replies to a love quiz printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz had 3 sections:
1. The first assessed respondents’ current or most important relationship
2. The second assessed general love experiences such as number of partners
3. The third section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of the 3 statements best described their feelings.

Question 23

What were the findings?

Answer 23

56% of respondents were identified as securely attached
25% insecure avoidant
19% insecure resistant

Those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic experiences.

The avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy

Question 24

What do these findings suggest?

Answer 24

Patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic experiences.