influence of early attachment

• bowlby (1951) believed that the type and quality of relationships that infants have with their primary caregivers in infancy provides the foundation for later childhood and adult relationships
• an infant will form an ‘internal working model’ which will act as a template for the future, based on the quality of the ‘interactions’ they have with their primary attachments figure
• the ‘continuity hypothesis’ which states that similar relationships will occur throughout life
• we form our ideas about how relationships work based on the attachments we form with our parents/caregivers in  infancy
• bowlby believed that the better the ‘quality’ of the first relationship, the better the relationships we will be capable of later
• for example, neglectful or abusive relationships in infancy will predispose a person to experience problems in relationships in their later childhood as well as in adulthood
• however, a loving, warm relationship with the primary attachment figure in infancy will predispose someone to expect future relationships in later childhood as well as in adulthood be warm and loving too