Influence of early attachment on later life

• The internal working model


  Bowlby suggested that the attachment an infant has with its primary caregiver acts as a template for future relationships by creating a set of unconscious rules and expectations for future relationships called the internal working mode
• The continuity hypothesis


  Suggests future relationships will follow the pattern based on this template, impacting childhood relationships, adult relationships and even their relationships with their own children
• Secure attachment - When a child has a secure loving relationship with their primary caregiver, they will assume all relationships should be like that and will seek out functional relationships and be functional within these relationships.
• Insecure-avoidant - Emotionally Closed and uninvolved in their relationships, making it difficult to form secure attachments
• Insecure-resistant - Controlling and argumentative in their relationships, making it difficult to form secure attachments.
• Hazan and Shaver conducted the love quiz which consisted of two parts, the first identifying the individual's attachment type as a child and the second assessing their current views about romantic love
• hazan and shaver found that found that securely attached were most likely to be in a healthy, loving relationship
• Insecure avoidant were more likely to not be in a relationship because they fear intimacy and commitment
• hazan and shaver found that Insecure resistant were more likely to fear that they weren't loved within their relationship
• hazan and shaver concluded that early attachment types did influence the person's future relationships, as suggested by Bowlby’s internal working model.
• Evaluating hazan and shaver


  The quiz also relies on people remembering details from their childhood, which may not always be accurate. Therefore peoples attachment types may be wrongly identified.
• evaluating hazan and shaver


  The love quiz used a volunteer sample and so may have only tested a certain type of person that was more likely to volunteer, findings may not generalise to the rest of the population.