Attachment - Implications Flashcards
(24 cards)
Childhood relationships
Affiliations with other people in childhood
Adult relationships
Work relationships, romantic relationships, relationship with own child
Internal working model
Mental representation of the world carrying perceptions of how relationships are
Continuity hypothesis
Quality of attachment in childhood sets quality of attachment for life
Kerns (1994)
Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships and childhood. Securely attach babies often form good quality friendships whereas insecurely attached babies have friendship difficulties
Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998)
Did a longitudinal study on 196 children age 7-11 years, assessing attachment type and bullying involvement
SA = not involved in bullying
IA=victims
IR=bully
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High validity due to longitudinality
Youngblade and Belsky (1992)
Found that 3-5 year old securely attached kids were more curious, competent, empathetic resilient and self-confident
Hartup et al (1993)
Securely attached children are popular at nursery and are more social, whereas insecurity attached children rely on teachers for interaction and emotional support
McCarthy (1999)
Assess the quality of adult relationships of 40 women age 25-44 years with childhood insecure attachments
SA= best adult friendships and romantic relationships
IR= problems maintaining friendships
IA= struggle with intimacy and less successful in romantic relationships
Wood et al (2003)
Believes that insecurely attached people can have secure relationships if with a securely attached person
Bailey et al (2007)
Found that mothers with poor attachments to their own mothers (reported via questionnaire), also had poor quality attachments to their children (measured by observation) – supports internal working model
Westermarck (1891)
Found that individuals who grow up together develop an unconscious adversion to sexual attraction (known as the Westermarck effect), which evolved to avoid inbreeding. Bonds with other children formed in the 1st 6 years of Life don’t form adult sexual relationships with each other.
Childhood attachment behaviour-SA
Products of sensitive parenting where caregivers has responded to the child’s signal
Childhood attachment behaviour-IR
Caregiver ignores child’s cries
Clingy babies
Angry, controlling kids
Childhood attachment behaviour-IA
Insensitive parenting – primary caregiver focuses on own needs
Emotional withdrawal as coping strategy
Unsure primary care giver loves them
Adult relationship behaviour-SA
Positive, trusting relationships
Depends on and is depended on
Doesn’t worry about commitment
Adult relationship behaviour-IR
Controlling relationships
Jealousy
Worry that their partner doesn’t care about them as much
Adult relationship behaviour-IA
Emotional detachment
Uncomfortable being too close to people
Hazan and shaver (1987) aim
Whether early attachment styles influence adult romantic relationships
Hazan and shaver (1987) procedure
Published love quiz to newspapers
620 responses
-205=men
-415=women
Based on earlier attachment experiences with their parents and current romantic relationship experiences and attitudes towards love
Hazan and shaver (1987) findings
56% SA (happy, trusting, endearing)
25% IA (difficulty to trust others, feared intimacy, jealousy)
19% IR (worried about partners leaving, emotional highs and lows, possessive)
Hazan and shaver (1987) conclusion
Supports continuity hypothesis
SA people have good relationships
IA/IR people have relationship difficulties
Evidence for internal working model
Strengths of implications of attachment
Practical application- therapy + parenting programs
Harlow supports this – longterm effects of early attachment experiences
Consistency across studies
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Reliability
