ATTACHMENTS: Later Relationships Flashcards
(13 cards)
Internal working model
Bowlby said this would act as a template for, future relationships
- the quality of the child’s first attachment is crucial this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships
- A child with LOVING REALTIONSHIPS for their first attachment and a reliable caregiver will seek out stable, functional relationships in the future and behave functionally within them
(e.g. without being too uninvolved/ emotionally close/ controlling and argumentative) - A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to later relationships (struggle to form relationships/ not behave appropriately in them)
Relationships in later childhood
- Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood.
- Securely attached infants tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached infants later have friendship difficulties (Kerns, 1994).
- In particular, bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type Insecure Resistant
Bullying research
Myron-Wilson and Smith 1998
- Assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires
- in 196 children aged 7-11 in London
SECURE children: v. Unlikely to be involved in bullying
INSECURE AVOIDANT: most likely to be the victims
INSECURE RESISTANT: most likely to be hate bullies
What is the childhood behaviour of a secure attachment type
- best quality childhood friendship
- unlike to be part of bullying
What is the childhood behaviour of Insecure resistant type
- form poorer quality friendships
- most likely to be bullies
What is the childhood behaviour of Insecure avoidant attachment type
- poorer quality friendships and most likely to be victims of bullying
Two studies on the relationship with romantic partners
McCarthy 1999
Hazan and Shaver 1987
McCarthy
- 1999
- studied 40 adult women who were assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type
- securely attached infants: best adult friendships and romantic relationships
- Insecure resistant: particular problems maintaining friendships
- Insecure avoidant: struggled with intimacy in a romantic relationship
Hazan and Shaver procedure
1987
- classic study of the association between attachment and adult relationships
- analysed 620 replies to a love quiz printed on an America local Newspaper
- quiz had 3 sections
1. Current most important relationship
2. General love experiences (such as # of partners)
3. Choose one of the 3 statements that best describes their feelings
Hazan and Shaver results
56% identified as securely attached : good and long lasting romantic experiences
25% as insecure avoidant
19% as insecure resistant may be manipulative / possesive
- The avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy
Relationships as a parent
• Internal working models affect a child’s ability to parent their own children
• People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations
• Bailey et al (2007): considered attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers
• Mother-baby attachment assessed using the Strange situation
• Mother-own mother attachment assessed using an adult attachment interview
• The majority of women had same attachment classification to both their babies and their mothers
Note: Bailey et al 2007 also in lesson 5 (evaluate Bowlby)
Positive evaluations of Later relationships
the influence of early attachment is probabilistic
- It does seem very likely that the quality of infant attachment is an influence on later relationship.
- * some attachment researchers, including Bowlby, have probably exaggerated the significance of this influence.*
Clarke and Clarke (1998) describe the influence of infant attachment on later relationships as probabilistic. People are not doomed to always have bad relationships just because they had attachment problems– they just have a greater risk of problems.
Negative evaluations of later relationships
association does not mean causality
• Internal Working Model: association between early and later life attachments does not always mean causality.
EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: For example, there are alternative explanations for the continuity that is often observed between infant and adult attachments.
- A third environmental factor such as parenting style might have a direct effect on both attachment and the child’s ability to form relationships with others.
- Alternatively, the child’s temperament may influence both infant attachment and the quality of later life relationships.
EVALUATION: This is a limitation because it is counter to Bowlby’s view that the internal working model causes these later outcomes.
evidence on the continuity of attachment type is mixed
• A weakness is that the evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed.
EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: For example, some studies do appear to support continuity and so provide evidence to support internal working models.
- However, Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. The findings indicated that there was very little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.
EVALUATION: This is a problem because this outcome is not what would be expected if the internal working models were important in development.
issues of validity
- Another weakness is that most studies of the influences of early attachment on later relationships lack validity.
EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: For example, many assessments of early attachments and current day attachments rely on the use of questionnaires and interviews (self-report methods) as a means of categorising participants as a specific attachment type.
EVALUATION: This is a weakness because this data is RETROSPECTIVE (data that relies on the participants memory i.e. they are reporting events from the past that will be used as data in an experiment), there is a high chance that the data being collected in these studies is inaccurate and therefore calls into question the validity of the research findings.
