Influence of Early Attachment On Later Relationships

Question 1

Internal Working Model:

Answer 1

1. The quality of a child’s first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships.
   2.A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to bear on later relationships.

Question 2

Relationships in later childhood:

Answer 2

1. Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood.
2. Securely attached infants go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached infants later have friendship difficulties (Kerns 1994).
3. Myron-Wilson and Smith assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London.
4. Secure children were least likely to be involved, IA children likely to be victims and IR were most likely to be the bullies.

Question 3

Romantic Partners: Gerard McCarthy

Answer 3

1. 1999 studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type.
2. Those classed as S as infants had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships.
3. IR had problems maintaining friendships, IA struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.

Question 4

Hazan and Shaver: Procedure

Answer 4

1. They analysed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ printed in an American local newspaper.
2. Had 3 sections. 1st was about their current or most important relationship. 2nd assessed general love experienced such as number of partners. 3rd assessed attachment type by asking respondent to choose which of 3 statements best described their feelings.

Question 5

Hazan and Shaver: Findings

Answer 5

1. 56% were securely attached, 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant.
2. Those with secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic relationships.
3. Avoidant tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy.
4. Patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships.

Question 6

Relationships in adulthood as a parent:

Answer 6

1. Internal working models also affect the child’s ability to parent their own children.
2. People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family, Bailey at al.
3. Considered the attachments 99 mothers and their babies and to their own mothers.
4. Attachment was measured using the SS and the majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers.

Question 7

E: Evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed.

Answer 7

1. IWMs predict continuity between the security of an ifant’s attachment and that of its later relationships.
2. Evidence for this is mixed. Some studies like McCarthy do appear to support continuity and so provide evidence to support continuity and IWMs.
3. Zimmerman assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. Very little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.
4. Not what we would expect if internal working models were important in development.

Question 8

E: Most studies have issues of validity

Answer 8

1. Most studies of attachment to primary caregiver and other significant people do not use the SS, but assess infant-parent attachment using interviews or questionnaires, years after infancy.
2. Assessment relies on self-report techniques like interviews or questionnaires to assess the quality of those relationships.
3. The validity of these are limited because they rely on respondents being honest and having a realistic view of their own relationships.
4. Retrospective nature of assessment of infant attachment. Looking back in adulthood at one’s relationship to a primary attachment figure probably lacks validity, it relies on accurate recollections.

Question 9

E: Associations does not mean causality

Answer 9

1. In studies where infant attachment type is associated with the quality of later relationships, the implication is that infant attachment type causes the attachment.
2. There are alternative explanations for the continuity that exists between infant and later relationships. Parenting style might have a direct effect on both attachment and the child’s ability to form relationships with others.
3. Alternatively the child’s temperament (Kagan) may influence both ifant attachment and the quality of later relationships.
4. This is a limitation because it is counter to Bowlby’s view that the IWM caused these later outcomes.

Question 10

E: The influence of early attachment is probabilistic

Answer 10

1. It does seem very likely that the quality of infant attachment is an influence on later relationship.
2. Some researchers, Bowlby, have probably exaggerated the significance of this influence.
3. Ann Clarke and Alan Clarke describe the influence of infant attachment on later relationships as probabilistic.
4. People are not doomed to always have bad relationships, just because they had attachment problems. They just have a greater risk problems. There is a further issue that by emphasising this risk we become too pessimistic bout people’s futures.

Question 11

E: Self-report is conscious but IWMs are not

Answer 11

1. There is the theoretical with problem with research related to IWMs.
2. IWMs are unconscious, we are not directly aware of their influence on us. We would not really expect to get direct evidence about them by means of interviews or questionnaires, people can only self-report what they are aware of.
3. When pps self-report on their relationships they are relying on their conscious understanding of those relationships. At best self-report gives us indirect evidence about IWMs. This is a potential limitation of most research.