influence of early attachment on later relationships

• how does the internal working model (B) relate to attachment in later relationships?

  template for future adult and child relationships, the quality of babies first attachment is crucial because it will affect the nature of future relationships, a first loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure will tend to assume this is how relationships are meant to be, they seek out functional relationships and behave functionally in them i.e without being too close uninvolved or emotionally close (insecure-avoidant) or being too controlling or argumentative (insecure-resistant) a child with bad experiences will bring it into future ones, meaning they may struggle to form relationships in the first place or may not behave appropriately within relationships displaying insecure-avoidant/resistant behaviour towards friends and partners
• explain childhood relationships

  attachment type attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood, securely attached babies tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached babies later have friendship difficulties (Kerns) bullying behaviour = myron-wilson and smith saw attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London. securely attached were unlikely to be involved. insecure avoidant were most likely to be victims and insecure resistant most likely to be bullies
• explain adult relationships

  IWM affects 2 major adult experiences, romantic and parental relationships

  romantic = hazan and shaver and in another, mccarthy studied 40 women who had been assessed when they were babies to establish early attachment type, those assessed as securely attached babies had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships, adults classed as insecure resistant as babies had particular problems maintaining friendships, those classed as insecure avoidant as babies had struggled with intimacy 
• explain adult relationships (2)

  parental = IWM affects childs ability to parent their own children, basing parenting styled on IWM so attachment type tends to run through family generations, bailey et al = considered attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and own mothers, mother-baby attachment assessed by SS and mothers attachment to own mother assessed by an adult attachment interview, the majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and own mothers
• what is the love quiz, who conducted it?

  hazan and shaver conducted a study of the association between attachment and adult relationships

  P: analysed 620 replies to a 'love quiz' in an American local newspaper 

  -three sections:

  -assessed respondents current/most important relationship 

  -assessed general love experiences e.g number of partners

  -assessed attachment type by asking them to pick which of 3 statements describe their feelings best

  F: 56% identified as securely attached, 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant, secure were most likely to have good and longer lasting relationships, avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy = suggest that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships
• give one strength and a counterpoint of research into attachment and later relationships

  supporting evidence, reviews of studies (fearon and roisman) have concluded that early attachment consistently predicts later attachment, emotional well being and attachment to own children

  -how strong the relationship is between early and late attachment depends both on the attachment type and the aspect of later development 

  -while insecure-avoidant is mild disadvantages to any aspect of development, disorganised attachment strongly associated with later mental disorder 
• give one strength and a counterpoint of research into attachment and later relationships (2)

  not all evidence supports the existence of close links e.g the regensburg longitudinal study (stoll et al) followed 43 individuals from 1 yrs old, at age 16 attachment was assessed using the adult attachment interview and found no evidence of continuity this means that it is not clear to what extent the quality of early attachment really predicts later development, there may be other factors
• give one limitation of most research into the influence of early attachment

  most research in influence of early attachment is assessed retrospectively

  -most research are not longitudinal 

  -usually ask adolescent or adult participants questions about their relationships with parent and identify attachment type with this

  -two validity problems: relies too much on honesty and perception, and hard to know whether what is being assessed is early or adult attachment 

  this means that measures of early attachment used in most studies may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless
• give another limitation of studies into the influence of early attachment on later relationships

  existence of CV: some studies do assess attachment in infancy e.g mccarthy = assessment of early attachment is valid but these studies may have validity issues bc association between attachment quality and later development may be affected by CV e.g parenting style may influence both attachment quality and later development, genetically influenced personality may be an influence on both factors this means that we can never be entirely sure that it is early attachment and its not some other factor influencing development
• evaluation extra

  it seems likely that the influence of early attachment is probabilistic (clarke and clarke) this means that an insecure attachment does not invariably cause increased risk of later developmental problems, it may be more likely but a host of other factors are involved. by knowing someones attachment status we have the opportunity to intervene and help their development however we may become too pessimistic and create a self-fufilling prophecy