The Influence of early attachment

• What is the internal working model?

  A mental model of the world which allows individuals to predict and control their environment. In terms of attachment this model relates to a person's expectations about relationships.
• What is Bowlby's concept of the internal working model similar to?

  A schema or a template
• What did Bowlby propose about infants?

  That they had an innate tendency to form attachments to the caregiver most sensitive to their needs
• Why did Bowlby view this first attachment as unique?

  It sets the template for all future relationships
• How does the continuity hypothesis link with the internal working model.

  It proposes that infants that form strong attachments when they are young go on to form strong attachments when they are olde and vice versa
• What does the attachment theory predict?

  That children with an internal working model shaped around a secure attachment would go on to be socially confident in their interactions with people.
• How does research from Wipperman (1979), Willie (1986) and Leberman (1977) support the attachment theory?

  They all found that children with secure attachments went on to be socially competent adults.
• However what did Fleeson (1986) find out?


  That children with internal working models based around insecure attachments were more reliant on teachers for emotional support and interaction.
• What does research show about adult relationships?

  They are also shaped by early attachments that were made.
• What does Harlow's research on the rhesus monkeys demonstrate?

  How poor early attachment could translate to poor parenting with monkeys themselves
• What did Quinton et al (1984) find out?


  Mothers raised in institutional care (which negatively affected their early attachment) were more likely to struggle as parents themselves as they had no template to base their own parenting on for their children
• What did Hazan and Shaver (1987) investigate?

  The effects of attachment on intimate adult relationships.
• What was the procedure of Hazan and Shaver (1987) experiment?


  They placed a love quiz in a newspaper which asked questions about their current and previous attachments (to identify childhood attachment types) and their attitudes towards love (internal working model).
• How many responses did Hazan and Shaver (1987) analyse?

  620 (205 from men and 415 from women)
• What did Hazan and Shaver (1987) find out from their love quiz?

  That attachment types in adulthood were closely matched to what participants reported about infancy.
• What percentage of people were classed as having secure attachments?

  56%
• What percentage of people were classed as having avoidant attachments?

  25%
• What percentage of people were classed as having resistant attachments?


  19%
• What did the results show about people that had secure attachments?

  They had a positive internal working model and had a concept of trust and love in relationships.
• What did the results show about people that had insecure avoidant attachments?

  They doubted whether true love was actually real and believed they didn't need a partner to be happy.
• What did the results show about people that had insecure resistant attachments?

  They expressed the most self doubt and were the most vulnerable to loneliness.
• Overall what did Hazan and Shaver (1987) experiment tell us?

  How for the most part, early influences of attachment have continuity into adult relationships.
• What is a weakness with the type of research used to link early attachment with later relationship experiences?

  It is based on correlational data
• Why is it a weakness that the research linking the early attachment with later relationships is based on correlational data

  We cannot properly determine the cause and effect between relationship experiences and early attachment as it is possible that both love and attachment styles are caused by something different.
• What does this tell us about research into early attachment?

  That it may lack validity as other intervening variables may play a role in determining later relationship experiences.
• Also why is it a weakness that the information in Hazan and Shaver (1987) love quiz relied on data that was recalled?

  The data was retrospective and the recall may have been wrong due to human error and so the data may lack validity.
• Who's research undermines the early attachment theory?

  Simpson (2007)
• How does research from Simpson (2007) undermine the early attachment theory?

  In his research he found cases where people that were not securely attached as infants went on to have happy adult relationships later on in life.
• What does the research by Simpson (2007) tell us?

  That the early attachment theory may be incorrect as his research shows that early attachment is not always the deciding factor and this reduces the reliability of the explanation.
• Who's research also goes against the early attachment explanation?

  Fraley (2002)
• What did Fraley (2002) find out?

  He found that there was a low correlation between early attachment types and later relationships. Correlations ranged from 0.5 to as low as 0.1
• What does the research by Fraley (2002) tell us

  That there may not be as strong a link between early attachment and later relationships and this goes against the research conducted by Hazan and Shaver.
• Why may the research by Hazan and Shaver suffer from culture bias?

  It only focuses on early attachment in the US and not other cultures.
• If Hazan and Shaver only tested people from the US then what does this mean?

  That their findings may not be applicable to other cultures as in places like Germany, interpersonal space is encouraged yet a lot of infants grow up to have successful love experiences.