The influence of early attachment

• What is an internal working model in terms of attachments?

  • Mental representations or expectations of relationships.
  • it's operable = used to predict behaviour of people in the future
• Who designed a study to test the internal working model?

  hazan and shaver
• What was the study to test the internal working model?

  • Love quiz
  • On the Rocky Mountain news
• What did the quiz ask questions about? How many people competed it?

  • Questions about current and history attachment experiences to identify current and childhood attachment types
  • Attitudes towards love
  • Assessed IWM
  • 620 people completed it
• What were the findings of the quiz?

  • 56% secure attachment
  • 25% avoidant
  • 19% resistant
  • Positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences- secure attachment types had longest lasting relationships- 10 yrs on average compared to 5 and 6 years for avoidant and resistant respectively
  • Relationship between IWM and attachment type- securely attached individuals had a positive internal working model
• What behaviours are influenced by IWM?

  Mum (needs) CPR

  • Mental health- lack of attachment means lack of IWM, so inability to interact and relate with others
  • Childhood relationships- very important in forming positive IWM
  • Poor parenting- Harlow‘s research supports this- lack of IWM means parents struggle to form a relationship with their own kids
  • Romantic relationships- those who have a positive IWM and are securely attached have longer lasting relationships
• Evaluation of the influence of early attachment?

  • ☹️research is correlational, not experimental- cant establish cause and effect- temperament for example could be reason why attachment forms- can’t claim early IWM determines later relationships
  • ☹️retrospective classification- recollections likely to be flawed- memories are not always accurate
  • ☹️overly determinist- researchers have found adults experiencing happy adult relationships despite not being securely attached
  • ☹️not a lab study- little control over variables as it was more of a self-report. Social desirability bias.