a baby whose first experience is of a loving relationship with reliable attachment figure -
will tend to assume this is how relationships are meant to be
will seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them - without being too uninvolved or emotionally close - is insecure avoidant attachment
or being controlling and argumentative - is insecure resistant attachment.
will bring these bad experiences to bear on later relationships
may mean they struggle to form relationships in first place or may not behave appropriately within relationships - is displaying insecure avoidant or insecure resistant behaviour towards friends and partners.
bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type - Wilson and Smith (1998) -
they assess attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in one hundred and ninety six children aged seven to eleven from london
secure children - were very unlikely to be involved in bullying
insecure avoidant - most likely to be victims
insecure resistant - were most likely to be bullied.
P - one strength of research into attachment and later relationships is supporting evidence
E - reviews have concluded that early attachment consistently predicts later attachment emotional well being and attachment to own children
E - how strong relationship is between early attachment type and later development depends both on attachment type and aspect of later development
E - while insecure avoidant attachment conveys mild disadvantages for any aspect of development, disorganised attachment is strongly associated with later mental disorder
L - means that secure attachment as a bbt conveys advantages for future development while disorganised attachment appears to seriously disadvantage children.
limitation - validity issues with retrospective studies -
P - is that early attachment is assessed retrospectively.
E - most research are not longitudinal - same person is not revisited - instead researchers ask adolescent and/or adultptps questions about their rations ooo w parents and identify attachment types from this - causes two validity problems - asking questions relies on honesty and accurate perception of ptps. and means it is hard to know whether what is being assessed is early or adult attachment
L - that the measures of early attachment used in most studies may be confounded with other factors, making them meaningless.
the influence of early attachment is probabilistic - means an insecure attachment does not invariably cause inc risk of later developmental problems - is not inevitable to have unsuccessful romantic relationships bc of early attachment experiences - may be more likely, but there are other factors involved
by knowing someone's attachment status - can intervene and help their development - but we may become too pessimistic, and create a self fulfilling prophecy.