Influence of early attachment on later relationships

• What is the Internal Working Model?

  When your primary attachment relationship acts as a model for future relationships
• What is the continuity hypothesis?


  The theory that attachments in early life form the basis for attachments later on
• Characteristics of different attachment types in childhood

  • Secure: Good quality trusting friendships
  • Insecure avoidant: Most likely to be victims of bullying and struggle to keep close friendships
  • Insecure resistant: Most likely to be bullies and struggle to maintain friendships
• Characteristics of different attachment types in adulthood

  • Secure: Believe in long lasting love and has secure, trusting relationships
  • Insecure avoidant: Does not believe in long lasting love and finds it hard to get emotionally close to someone
  • Insecure resistant: Tends to be paranoid that their partner is going to leave them and can be controlling and argumentative
• What is the procedure of Hazan and Schaver's Love Quiz?

  • The association between attachment and romantic relationships
  • Analysis of 620 replies to the Love Quiz questionnaire printed in a local newspaper
  • Found a positive correlation between attachment type and later love experiences
  • Assessed current and past relationships
• What were the finding of Hazan and Shaver's Love Quiz?

  • 56% secure, 25% avoidant and 19% resistant
  • Secure: Have longer lasting relationships and believe love endures
  • Insecure avoidant: Have a fear of closeness in relationships and believes love doesn't last
  • Insecure resistant: Needy for love and fall in love easily
• What research is there to show relationships in adulthood as a parent?

  • Bailey et al assessed 99 mothers in terms of their attachment with their 1 year old baby and the relationship they have with their own mother
  • Assessed mother child relationship with Strange Situation
  • Assessed relationship with their mother using an attachment interview
  • Poor attachment with their mother means they tend to have poor attachment to their children
• AO3: Association does not mean causality

  • Cannot establish cause and effect
  • Bailey et al and Hazan and Shaver were correlational studies so did not control extraneous variables
  • There may have been other factors that influenced later relationships other than early attachment relationships
• AO3: Subjectivity and Social Desirability Bias

  • Hazan and Shaver used a questionnaire which is subjective and relies on PPs answering honestly
  • PPs are required to recall past relationships which they may not remember that well meaning the results collected may not be reliable
• AO3: Issues with validity

  • Many pieces of research uses interviews or questionnaires
  • Research was not longitudinal so relies on accurate recollections of your past relationships
• AO3: Challenging Evidence- Romanian Orphan Studies

  • Had poor IWMs raised in an institution with no opportunity to form an attachment to a caregiver
  • Damaging effects of institutional care could be reversed provided they were adopted early enough and given a supportive adoptive family
• Outline research that has investigated the influence of early attachment on childhood relationships

  • Kerns found that securely attached infants are more likely to have good quality peer relationships during childhood
  • Insecure attachments are likely to have difficulty forming friendships