Early Attachment on Later Relationships Flashcards
(13 cards)
Early Attachment on Later Relationships
Early Attachment on Later Relationships
Bowbly’s theory - Internal working models
Continuity hypothesis - later relationships influnced by early attachment styles
Quality of child’s first attachment is crucial.
Bad first experiences = struggle to form relationships/act appropriately
— Type A behaviour - too involved/too emeotionally distant
— Type B behaviour - controlling/argumentativee
KEY STUDIES
KEY STUDIES
- Myron-Wilson and Smith
- Sroufe
- Bailey et al
- Hazan and Shaver
MYRON-WILSON AND SMITH
Myron-Wilson and Smith
- assessed attachment type and bullying involvement
- 196 children 7-11 London
- secure = not involved
- insecure res = most likely bullies
- insecure avoi = most likely victims
SROUFE
Sroufe
- Minnesota child-parent study
- secure = rated most highly for social competence later in childhood
- less isolated, more popular
BAILEY ET AL
Bailey et al
- assessed 99 mothrs and 1 yr olds
- measured attachment quality with standard interviews
- mothers who reported insecure attachment to own mothers were likely to have children classified as insecure
- according to observation (Strange Situation)
- Continuous hypothesis
HAZAN AND SHAVER
Hazan and Shaver
- Love Quiz - measure attachment type, love experience questionnaire
- printed in local newspapers, 620 replies, ages 14-82
- secure = happy, trusting experiences
- insecure res = love involved obsession, emotional highs and lows, jealousy, desired intense closeness
- insecure avoi = feared intimacy, emotional highs and lows, uncomf with closeness
- positive correlation between infant attachment types and adult romantic styles
- IWM has life-long effect
- not everyone stayed true to their infant attachment style, change can occur
Bowlby’s findings about secure adults in his love quiz
Relationships are positive
Trust others and believe in enduring love
Positive image of mother as caring and dependable
less likely to have been divorced
Bowlby’s findings about insecure-resistant adults in his love quiz
Preoccupied by love
Fall in love easily but have trouble finding love
Conflicting memories of mother being positive and rejecting
Bowlby’s findings about insecure-avoidant adults in his love quiz
Fearful of closeness
Love is not durable nor necessary for happiness
Remember mother as cold and rejecting
EVALUATION
EVALUATION
- Evidence on continuity is mixed - Fearon and Roison, Zimmerman
- Association does not mean causation
- Probabilistic - Clarke and Clarke
EVAL: Evidence on continuity of attachment is mixed
Evidence on continuity of attachment is mixed
- Fearon and Roison conducted meta-analysis on evidence that early attachment consistently predicts later relationship outcomes e.g Hazan and Shaver
- variations in data, predictive value of insecure avoi- is mild
- but early disorganised attachment is strongly related to later mental disorders
- Zimmerman found very little relationship
- weakness, empirical evidence challenges assumptions, reduces reliability
EVAL: Association does not mean causation
Association does not mean causation
- third factor such as child temperament may influence both infant attachment and quality of later relationships
- counters Bowlby’s IWM
EVAL: Probabilistic and overly deterministic
Probabilistic and overly deterministic
- Significance of relationship probably exaggerated by researchers like Bowlby
- e.g insecure infants ‘doomed’ to experience poor quality and unsatisfying relationships due to IWM
- Clarke and Clarke state people just have a greater risk of problems
- emphasising risk too pessimistic
- Continuity hypothesis deterministic
- Bowbly’s nomothetic theory but experiences not universal, different outcomes for different infant despite having negative experiences - humans have free will
