Influence of Early Attachment

• Bowlby suggested that there will be continuity (a similarity or connection) between your experiences as a baby/your attachment type or quality, and your relationships later in life (in childhood and adulthood). These relationships include friendships, romantic relationships and family relationships etc. He said that when we form our first main attachments, we form an internal working model, which is a mental template for what a relationship is and how to behave.
• Early attachments have also been found to determine various personality types, which can influence many parts of your life, but one notable part is your parenting style when you have a child of your own. It has been found that we are more likely to raise our children similarly to how we were raised, as our internal working model was built using our parent's’ parenting style as a template
• The internal working model affects your expectations of others and subsequently your attitude towards them, which would have an impact on the quality of romantic relationships in adulthood. For example, someone who is insecure resistant may have trust issues and may find it hard to commit to one person. A child’s internal working model can lead to the development of an attachment disorder. If they experience abuse or neglect in their childhood, they may grow up to resist or reject intimacy in their adult relationships. It may also lead to a lack of responsiveness or excessive overfamiliarity.
• strength -

  P = This is supported by Bailey (2007).

  E = They found that the majority of women (out of the 99 studied) had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers.

  E = This supports the idea of continuity, as suggested by Bowlby. The internal working models that we develop in response to our first attachment to our primary attachment figure contain our perceptions of what a normal relationship looks like, and so we seek out such relationships in accordance with our internal working model.
• strength -

  P = Hazan and Shaver supported the idea that the quality/type of early attachments have a significant impact on our ability as adults to form attachments.

  E = Hazan and Shaver found that those who were securely attached as children had happier and longer lasting relationships, and those who were insecurely attached had more divorces and tended to believe love was rare.

  E = This supports the idea that childhood experiences have significant impact on people’s attitude toward later relationships.
• weakness -

  P = It is reductionist and deterministic, due to suggesting that the influence of early attachments is deterministic, so a poor-quality attachment inevitably means that the individual will become bad parents themselves and be unable to form ‘normal’ romantic relationships and friendships in adulthood.

  E = it suggests that insecurely attached infants are doomed to grow up and have bad adult relationships, when this is of course not true.

  E = There are many cases of insecurely attached children growing to have strong happy relationships.
• strength -

  P = Research support link between early attachment type and success in later relationships.

  E = Fraley conducted a meta-analysis of studies- found correlations of up to 0.50 between early attachment types and later relationships.

  E = This demonstrates the link between some attachment types (e.g. insecure-anxious) and adult relationships being less clear than they were with other attachment types. This in turn suggests that some attachment types are more unstable over time, and so reduces the confidence that can be placed in Bowlby’s theories of attachment and continuity.
• strength -

  P = Supported by Simpson et al

  E = longitudinal study – participants were studied at 4 key points: infancy, early childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Attachment types and romantic relationships were assessed at different stages. Found that securely attached children were more expressive and emotionally attached in later romantic relationships

  E = support claim that expression of emotions in adult romantic relationships can be traced back to early attachment experiences
• weakness -

  P = The influence of early attachment on future relationships is guilty of determinism.

  E = There are significant problems with the research. For example, the theory suggests that children who are insecurely attached are doomed for later relationships. This is deterministic because it assumes that implies no choice/free will, and that self-fulfilling prophecies must occur.

  E = Other research suggests that plenty of insecurely attached children grow up to experience happy and fulfilling relationships.