influence of early attachment

• internal working model

  a baby's first attachment with their primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation of this relationship which acts as a template for future childhood and adult relationships
• relationships in childhood

  securely attached babies go to form best quality childhood friendships and insecurely attached babies have friendship difficulties.

  attachment type can predict bullying behaviour

  Myron-Wilson + Smith

  used standard questionnaires for 196 children aged 7-11 from London.

  secure children unlikely to be involved in bullying.

  insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be bullied.

  insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies
• relationships in adulthood

  romantic relationships:

  -> McCarthy

  -> studied 40 adult women who had been assessed as babies.

  -> securely attached had best adult friendships and romantic relationships.

  -> insecure-resistant had problems maintaining friendships

  -> insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.

  parental relationships:

  -> People tend to base parenting style on internal working model so attachment type is normally passed through generations.

  -> Bailey et al's mother-baby attachment study.

  -> majority of women had same attachment as their mother + child
• limitation - validity

  early attachment is assessed retrospectively.

  usually researchers ask adolescent or adult participants questions about relationships with parents to identify attachment type.

  as it is self-report, there is no guarantee participants are being honest.

  hard to know if it is assessing early or adult attachments.

  means measures of assessing early attachment are not valid due to confounding factors.
• limitation - confounding variables

  confounding variables are present.

  e.g. parenting style may influence both attachment quality and later development or genetically-influenced personality may be an influence on both factors.

  means can never be sure that it is early attachment influencing later development.