later relationships

Question 1

research into the affects of attachment to relationships in childhood

Answer 1

myron-wilson and smith
- studied 7 to 11 year old children using questionnaires and teacher reports to assess attachment type and involvement with bullying
FINDINGS
- insecure avoidant children were most likely to be victims. They were widthdrawn and struggled with social confidence.
- insecure resistant children were most likely to be bullies. They had difficulty regulating anger which would contribute to aggressive behaviour towards others.
- secure children were least involved in bullying. They had better social skills and emotional regulation.

Question 2

research into effects of attachment on relationships in adulthood

Answer 2

McCarthy
- studied 40 women who had been assessed as babies
- measured their friendships, romantic relationships, and emotional wellbeing
FINDINGS
- secure attachments formed healthy relationships. More stable friendships.
- avoidant attachments had difficulty with intimacy. They struggled with trust.
- resistant attachment had emotional issues such as jealousy, fear of rejection, and low self esteem.

Hazan & Shaver
- conducted a ‘love quiz’ in a newspaper.
- assessed current and past romantic relationships, attachment style, and childhood relationships with parents.
FINDINGS
- securely attached people had more stable, trusting and happy relationships.
- avoidant people feared intimacy, had trust issues, and were emotionally distant.
- resistant people experienced jealousy, had very obsessive love.

• the patterns were similar between ainsworth’s infant attachment categories which supports the idea of the IWM.

bailey et al
- assessed attachment type between 99 mothers and their 1 year old babies using SSP.
- assessed the attachment type of the mothers to their mothers using the AAI.
FINDINGS
- found the majority of women had the same attachment type to their babies as they did to their own mothers

Question 3

limitations of the theory of the IWM

Answer 3

Regensburg longitudinal study
- followed infants from birth to adulthood
- used the SSP to assess their attachment type in infancy.
- assessed the infants at different life stages via reports, observations, interviews, questionnaires and the AAI
FINDINGS
- found that many individuals retained their early attachment styles however some experiences changes due to life events.
- e.g insecure infants became more secure due to positive life events.
- highlighted that whilst bowlby’s theory is quite true, attachment is not necessarily fixed over time.

alternative explanations
- other factors such as innate temperament may influence attachment type in childhood and adulthood.
- for example innately friendly and outgoing children are more likely to form positive and functional relationships.
- challenges bowlby’s idea of the internal working model and the predictive validity of early attachment types

Question 4

evaluation of research into the influence of early attachment in later relationships

Answer 4

1) - Bailey et al & Hazan and Shaver’s studies are retrospective because it involves the participant looking back on memories.
- participants may forget their experience or social desirability bias may cause them to lie.
- creates false information making the internal validity lower

2) - longitudinal studies are prospective e.g McCarthy
- assessed throughout their life meaning they do not have to recall past events
- more likely to be accurate about attachment type through their life

3) - There may be other confounding variables that are not controlled for.
- for example: parenting style, socio-economic status
- this could effect the results of studies and influence later relationships
- making the studies less int valid as they do not measure what was intended