Lesson 12: The Influence Of Early Attachment On Adult Relationships

Question 1

What did Hassan and Shaver do?

Answer 1

Designed a study to test the connection between a persons early attachment style, their Internal Working Model and their adult attachment style.

Question 2

What was their procedure?

Answer 2

• Placed a love quiz in a newspaper and it asked about their relationship with their parents, attitudes toward live and their current relationship experiences
• They analysed 620 responses, 205 men and 415 women, from a fair cross section of the population.

Question 3

What were their findings?

Answer 3

• When analysing adult attachment, they found that adults’ attachment styles were similar to their childhood one.
• 56% secure, 25% Insecure Avoidant, 19% Insecure Resistant
• Positive correlation between adult attachment style and love experiences. Secure adults described their love experiences as happy, trusting and friendly. They emphasised being able to accept/support their partner. These relationships were most enduring (10 years) compared to avoidant and resistant (6&5 years)
• A relationship was found between internal working model and adult attachment style. Secure = positive working model

Question 4

Evaluation (-)

Answer 4

• Study is unreliable as other studies haven’t found the strong correlation between adult and infant attachment styles. A psychologist conducted a review of 27 samples and found correlations ranging from 0.5 to 0.1
• Study is correlation also instead of experimental so we cannot determine cause & effect. There could be a third variable that affects both attachments and relationships e.g innate temperament
• Study relies on participants memories in their early life. Memories are likely to be flawed as memory of the last isn’t always accurate, making the study invalid