How does your attachment determine your future?

• Attachments are an instinct formed to help survival

  The first attachment we form is to our parents and will depend on how sensitive the mothers care is ( Ainsworth )

  The attachment type you develop in childhood ( secure/insecure ) will continue into later relationships ( continuity hypothesis )
• Relationships in later childhood

  • Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood - securely attached infants go on to form the best quality friendships while insecurely attached infants struggle ( Kerns, 1994 )
  • In particular bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type
  • Myron - Wilson and Smith ( 1998 ) found that insecure avoidant infants are most likely to be bullied while insecure resistant infants are most likely to be bullies ( questionnaire to 196 children aged 7 - 11 from London )
• Relationships in adulthood with romantic partners

  Gerard McCarthy ( 1999 ) studied 40 adult women whose attachment types had been recorded in infancy and found

  • Anxious avoidant infants grew up to have the most difficult in romantic relationships
  • Anxious resistant infants grew up to have the poorest relationships 
  • Securely attached infants grew up to have the most successful romantic relationships and friendships
• The Love quiz - Hazan and Shaver (1987)
• Hazan and Shavers love quiz

  
• Relationships in adulthood as a parent

  • Internal working model also affects the child's ability to parent their own children
  • People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model, so attachment types tend to be passed on through generations of a family
  • The majority of women have the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers.
• Relationships in adulthood as a parent

  • Bailey et al ( 2007 ) - they considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and their own mothers. Mother - baby attachment was assessed using the strange situation and own mother attachment was assessed using an adult attachment interview.
• How does the internal working model impact future relationships?

  The internal working model is where through the monotropic attachment, the infant would form an internal working model, which is a special mental schema ( representation ) for relationships . This could include a dog biting would lead to the child not liking dogs/fear. All of the child's future relationships will rely on the internal working model and the type of relationship is first formed with the infant.
• How does the internal working model impact future relationships?


  To begin with, the infant forms an attachment with the parents, which then stimulates the type of relationship ( insecure/ secure ) the infant has with others, such as peers and the later romantic relationships they go on to have. This also links to the continuity hypothesis - the attachment type formed in childhood will continue to later relationships.
• A - does the child attachment correlate with adult attachments

  P - national experiment - questionnaire - closed questions - 620 participants 

  F - categorised as A,B or C. 56% were secure, 25% avoidant, 19% resistant. They found a positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences. Securely attached adults described their love experience as happy, friendly and trusting, and emphasised being able to accept and support their partner despite faults. These relationships were longer lasting, 10 years on average, compared to 5 or 6 for resistant and avoidant, supporting continuity