influence of early attachment on later relationships

• Internal working model

  • The quality of a child’s first attachment is crucial becuase it provides a template that will affect the nature of their future relationships
  • This is due to the influence of their internal working model created by that first attachment
• good attachment = good relationship expectations

  • A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure assumes this is how all relationships are meant to be
  • They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them
• bad attachment = bad relationship expectations

  • A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these experiences to bear on later relationships
  • This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place or they do not behave appropriately in them
• childhood = link with friendships and bullying

  • Kerns:
  • securely attached babies tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships
  • Myron-Wilson and Smith:
  • securely attached children are less likely to be involved in bullying
  • insecure-avoidant children are most likely to be victims
  • Insecure-resistant are more likely to be bullies
• Adulthood = link with parenting style and romantic relationships

  • Bailey et al:
  • People base their parenting style on their internal working model
  • they found the majority of mothers had the same attachment classification to their babies as they had to their own mothers
  • Hazan and Shaver:
  • Found a link between attachment type and quality of adult romantic relationships
  • Love quiz
• Hazan and Shaver, The Love Quiz:

  • Procedure:
  • Researchers analysed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ printed in an american local newspaper
  • Quiz assessed 3 different aspects of relationships = current and most important relationship, general love experiences, attachment type
  • Findings/conclusions:
  • Respondents’ attachment type was reflected in their romantic relationships:
  • Secure respondents = most likely to have good and longer-lasting romantic relationships
  • Avoidant respondents = tended to be jealous and fear intimacy
• strength = strong research support

  • There are many studies showing a link between infant attachment type and later development (including bullying, success in romantic relationships and parenting)
  • Review from Fearon and Roisman = concluded that infant attachment influenced development in many ways
  • Disorganised attachment was most predictive eg of later mental disorder
  • Means that insecure attachment appears to convey a disadvantage for children’s development
• counterpoint to strong research support

  • No all evidence supports the link between infant attachment and later development
  • Eg = the Regensburg longitudinal study (Becker-Stoll et al) found no evidence of continuity of attachment type from age 1-16 years
  • Means it is not clear how strongly attachment influences later development
• limitation = validity issues with retrospective studies

  • Most studies assess participants attachment type in adulthood (not in infancy) using questionnaires or interviews (these rely on honest answers)
  • also these studies assess attachment in late childhood or adulthood and assume that it has remained the same since infancy
  • Means that the measures of attachment may not be valid
• limitation = possible confounding variables

  • some studies do make assessments of infant attachment and follow up their children, assessing their later development
  • BUT = these studies may be affected by confounding variables
  • Eg = parenting style and personality might affect both attachment and later development
  • Means we can never be entirely sure that it is infancy attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development
• extra evaluation = balancing opportunity and risk

  • Knowing that insecure infant attachment leads to increased risk of later developmental problems can provide opportunities to intervene
  • BUT = this may lead to overly pessimistic expectations and create a self-fulfilling prophecy
  • This means that knowing someone’s attachment status may do more harm than good