Attachment: Early attachment + later relationships

Question 1

what is Bowlby’s internal working model (IWM)

Answer 1

• How childhood attachments influence adult relationships.
  -> E.g. secure attachment to sensitive caregiver, likely to see selves as worthy of love -> likely to form future secure relationships.
  -> if insecure attachment -> likely to see selves as unworthy of love -> future insecure relationships.

caregiver’s interaction with child
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Child’s IWM
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childhood attach: Adult relationships:
- secure attachment - secure relationship
- insecure-avoidant attachment - avoidant
- insecure-resistant attachment. - resistant

Question 2

Explain Hazan and Shaver’s Love Quiz -> support for IWM

Answer 2

• results: found a correlation between the type of childhood attachment and people’s later views on romantic love.
  -> secure children more likely to have a happy and trustworthy relationships.
  -> insecure-avoidant fear intimacy.
  -> insecure-resistant worried they weren’t in love in their relationships.
• conclusion: support for Bowlby’ Internal Working Model -> early attachments do influence adult relationships.

Question 3

Evaluate Hazan and Shaver’s love quiz (IWM)

Answer 3

(-) people look back on childhood -> not always accurate.
(-) volunteer sampling -> a certain type of person may be more likely to respond.
(-) may have answered untruthfully to show selves in better light.
-> social desirability.
(+) the study was repeated in 2003 -> SIMILAR RESULTS.

Question 4

What is the adult attachment interview (Main et al)

Answer 4

• doesn’t matter what the childhood attachment was -> its how its remembered -> supports IWM.
• Semi-structured interview asks Qs about childhood relationships -> and how these influence later relationships.
• interviewee gives 5 adjectives explaining relationships with each parent.
  -> explained why they chose each adjective.
• results were then classified by trained coders into a category -> secure, dismissing, preoccupied, or unresolved/disorganised/
• Main showed categories of adult relationships could be predicted from people’s recall of their childhood attachments.

Question 5

What is the cycle of privation (Quinton)

Answer 5

• compared 50 women who experienced institutional care with 50 who did not.
• found women who were raised in institutions were more likely to have parenting difficulties.
• suggests a cycle of privation -> children who experience privation later go on to be less caring parents.

-> less caring parents
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privation in children <-

Question 6

What is reactive attachment disorder (Parker and Forrest)

Answer 6

• a rare but serious condition -> children were permanently damaged by early experiences such as privation -> symptoms:
• Inability to give/receive affection
• dishonesty
• poor social relationships
• Involvement in Crime

Question 7

(-) explain how Freud and Dann’s research challenges the theory of privation

Answer 7

• showed privation may not necessarily lead to detrimental outcomes.
• studied 6 children rescued after WWII.
• Looked after by Jewish people ‘passing through’ concentration camps -> but had no time to form adult attachments.
• children were adopted by British families -> grew up to have normal level of intelligence and maintained normal relationships.