influence of early attachment on relationships

• What is the internal working model?

  The template for future relationships based on the first attachment made
• How is the internal working model relevant to the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships?


  The kind of relationship that a child has with their parent will influence what they will expect from relationships in later life
• What did Kerns (1994) find about the friendships of securely attached infants?


  Best quality friendships
• What did Kerns (1994) find about the friendships of insecurely attached infants?


  Experienced friendship difficulties
• Who did Myron-Wilson & Smith (1998) find are more likely to be bullies?

  Insecure-resistant
• Who did Myron-Wilson & Smith (1998) find are more likely to be bullied?

  Insecure avoidant
• What did Hazan and Shaver do?


  Placed a ‘love quiz’ in theRocky Mountain News(an American small-town publication
• What did the 'love quiz' ask about?

  The quiz asked questions about current attachment experiences and about attachment history to identify current and childhood attachment types
• What did the 'love quiz' also ask about?

  The questionnaire also asked questions about attitudes towards love, an assessment of the internal working model
• How many responses did Hazan and Shaver analyse?

  620 responses, 205 from men and 415 from women, from a fair cross-section of the population
• What did they find about the prevalence of attachment styles?

  Similar as to found in infancy
• What correlation did Hazan and Shaver find?

  A positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences
• How did securely attached adults describe their love experiences?

  Happy, friendly and trusting
• How long did relationships last with securely attached adults?

  On average, 10 years
• How long did relationships last with insecure avoidant adults?

  On average, 6 years
• How long did relationships last with insecure resistant adults?

  On average, 5 years
• How do insecure avoidant adults describe their love experiences?

  Uncomfortable being close to others, difficult to trust them and depend on others. Nervous when anyone gets close, and love partners want to be more intimate than they feel comfortable being
• How do insecure resistant adults describe their love experiences?

  Others are reluctant to get as close as they'd like. Worry that their partner doesn't really love them or won't stay with them. Want to merge completely with another person and this desire scares people away.
• What is an issue with research into the influence of attachment on later relationships and the role the internal working model must play in this?

  It's only correlational
• In addition, what did Fraley et al. (2002) find?

  The correlations were not always strong positive ones
• What did correlation coefficients range from?

  +.10 to +.50
• What is a problem with correlations?

  It does not determine causality
• What is the case because we cannot determine causality?

  We cannot determine if the attachment type in childhood is the cause of the attachment type in adulthood
• What are methodological issues with assessing attachment type?

  They are assessed retrospectively
• Why is retrospective recollection a bad thing?

  Recollection from years gone by are likely to be impaired and

  any answers provided may lack accuracy due to deterioration
• What else may be an issue with the 'love quiz'?

  Individuals may not report honestly or even have an insight into their own template of expectations since the internal working model in an unconscious framework
• Research into the impact of attachment on childhood and adult relationships have what?

  Very set views on the outcomes for future behaviour
• How does research into the impact of attachment on childhood and adult relationships have very set views on the outcomes for future behaviour?

  An infant with an insecure attachment type will be doomed to experience poor quality and unsatisfying relationships in later life as a result of the internal working model formed
• What can research into attachment in later life be described as, as a result?

  Overly deterministic suggesting that there is no room for an alternative path to unfold