Consequences of Early Attachment - Hazan and Shaver

• Internal Working model


  A template for relationships which can affect the nature of future relationships
• Hazan and Shaver (1987) - Aim


  To test the internal working model
• Hazan and Shaver (1987) - Method 


  Created a ‘love quiz’ in an American newspaper

  Recorded 620 responses (205 men, 415 women) from a cross section of the population

  The quiz asked about:

  • Current attachment experiences
  • Attachment history to identify current attachment types
  • Childhood attachment types
  • Attitudes towards love
• Hazan and Shaver (1987) - Findings 


  • Attachment type distribution was like infants
  • A positive relationship between attachment type and love experience
  • Securely attached adults were happy, friendly and trusting - emphasised the importance of being able to accept and support their partner despite their faults
  • Also included a relationship between what their concept of love was and their attachment type - securely attached mostly had a positive internal working model
• IWM explanation - Childhood friendships


  Minnesota child-parent study (Sroufe et al 2005)

  • Supports Bowlby’s continuity hypothesis, finding a relationship between early attachment and later emotional/social behaviour
  • Securely attached infants have higher expectations that others are friendly and trusting, and this would enable easier relationships with their own children
• IWM Explanation - Poor Parenting (Quinton et al 1984)


  • Compared a group of women who had been reared in institutions with a control group of women who had been brought up in their homes
  • Ex-institutional women later experiences difficulties as parents themselves, many put their children into care
  • The lack of internal working model means that the individual lacks a reference point to be able to form relationships with their own children
• IWM Explanation - Romantic relationships

  • Hazan and Shaver found a distinct link between early attachment type and later relationships
  • Individuals who were securely attached had long lasting and romantic relationships
• IWM Explanation - Mental health 


  A lack of attachment in a critical period would result in a lack of any internal working model

  This may them lead to an attachment disorder with some of the following characteristics:

  • No preffered attachment figure
  • An inability to interact and relate to others
  • Experience severe neglect to frequent change of caregivers
• Relationships in later childhood

  Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood

  • Securely attached infants form the best quality friendships whereas insecurely attached infants have friendship difficulties (Kerns 1994)

  Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998) - Bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type:

  • Secure children were very unlikely to be bullies
  • Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims
  • Insecure-resistant were most likely to be bullies
• Weakness - Research is correlational not causational 


  Research lacks causational evidence, therefore, we cannot claim That the relationship between early attachment and later love styles / relationships is one of cause and effect

  Could there be other intervening variables? Kagans temperament hypothesis?
• Weakness - Issues with retrospective research 


  Recollections of early life may not be entirely accurate - longitudinal studies don’t support Hazan and Shavers findings.

  Simpson et all (2007) - assessed infant attachment types aged 1

  • Those who were classified as securely attached infants were rated as having higher social competence later on, as well as being more expressive and more emotionally attached to their romantic partners
• Weakness - Highly deterministic 


  Research is correlational so may lack in consideration of other factors / variables

  • Are we doomed to poor, emotionally dissatisfactory relationships if we do not form secure attachments
  • Many adults do go n to experience happy relationships despite not forming a secure attachment as an infant