Influence of early attachment

• What is the role of internal working model?

  • early attachment provides blueprint for later (adult) attachment
  • Formation of mental scheme of first attachment relationship
  • Infant learns about relationships from experience so a child with bad experiences will bring those experiences into later relationships
• Relationships in later childhood

  • attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood
  • Insecurely attached infants struggle to form good quality relationships (Kerns 1944)
• What did Myron-Wilson and Smith do? (1998)

  196 children’s attachment type and bullying assessed by questionnaire
• What were Myron-Wilson and Smith’s results ?

  • insecure avoidant = most likely to be bullied
  • insecure resistant = most likely to be bullies
  • Secure = not involved
• What did Hazan and Shaver do?

  • love quiz (put in a small town publication)
  • Asked: current attachment experiences, attachment history to identify current
  • Attachment type assessed by responding to one of three statements “best describes me”
  • 620 responses were analysed (205 men and 415 women)
• What were Hazan and Shaver‘s findings?

  • 56% secure
  • 25% avoidant
  • 19% resistant
  • nearly matches Ainsworth (66% secure, 22% avoidant, 12% resistant)
• Love quiz results for securely attached adults:

  Had certain beliefs (love is enduring), reported certain experiences (mutual trust) and were less likely to have been divorced
• Love quiz results for insecurely attached adults:

  Felt true love was rare, fell in and out of love easily, found relationships less easy and were more likely to be divorced
• Relationships in adulthood as a parent:

  The internal working model also affects the child’s ability to parent
• What did Bailey et al do ?

  • 99 mothers to their infants + own mother using strange situation and interviews
  • Majority of mothers had the same attachment type with their infant and their own mother
• Strength - strong research support

  • Many studies show link between infant attachment type and later development
  • Review by Fearon and Roisman (2017) - infant attachment influenced development in many ways
  • Disorganised attachment was most predictive (e.g. of later mental disorder)
  • So insecure attachment appears to be a disadvantage for children's development
• Weakness (strong research support)

  • Not all evidence supports the link between infant attachment and later development.
  • Regensburg longitudinal study (Becker-Stoll et al. 2008) - no evidence of continuity of attachment type from age 1 to 16 years.
  • Means it isn’t clear how strongly attachment influences later development.
• Weakness (Zimmerman)

  • Assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents
  • There was very little relationship between the quality of infant and adolescent attachment.
• Weakness - research is correlated

  • So we can’t claim that the relationship between early attachment and later love styles is cause and effect
  • Temperament hypothesis - This may affect their issues (good or bad) with relationships later in life. Temperament is an intervening variable.