Influence of early attachment on childhood + adult relations

• What part of Bowlby's theory of attachment showed that mother-infant attachment affected future relations?

  Internal working model
• What is the internal working model?

  A special template for relationships. All the child's future childhood and adult relationships will be based on the relationship with their primary attachment figure.
• What did Bowlby call his hypothesis of the IWM?

  Continuity hypothesis

  The attachment type you develop in early childhood (secure/insecure) will continue into later relationships.
• What did Ainsworth find about later relationships in her study of attachment types using the strange situation?

  those with secure attachment are predicted to have the better relationships later in life.
• How does the Minnesota study (2005) support influence of attachment on childhood relationships?


  -They followed participants from infancy to late adolescence and found securely attached children to be rated most highly for social competence later in childhood, were less isolated and more popular that insecure.
• How does the Myron-Wilson and smith study on bullying (1998) support influence of attachment on childhood relationships?

  -Took questionnaires with children aged 7-11 from London and found secure were unlikely to be involved in bullying, insecure-avoidant to be most likely to be a victim and Insecure-resistant to be most likely to be a bully.
• How does MCcarthy's study (1999) support influence of attachment on adult relationships?

  -followed up 40 women who had been assessed for attachment type in childhood and found:

  secure- best friendships and relationships

  insecure-avoidant- problems with intimacy in romantic relationships.

  Insecure-resistant- more problems in friendships.
• How does Bailey et al study (2007) support influence of attachment on adult parenting relations?

  -strange situation was used to assess women-baby attachment currently and adult attachment interviews were used to assess mother-mother attachment in childhood.

  They found an association with women tending to show the same attachment type in both relationships.
• What is a limitation of the love quiz?

  the questions and answers are force choice and very narrow, so do not allow people to choose a response that fully reflects their experiences in relationships. The data will therefore lack validity as they do not truly represent people's relationship experiences.
• What is a strength of research into the internal working model?

  application to relationship therapy and child support services. By making people aware of their learned patterns of behaviour we might be able to change them.