early attachment on childhood and adult relationships

• what does the continuity hypothesis state

  • We imitate our relationship with our parents in our future relationships with friends, romantic partners and our own children
  • This happens because we build up an internal working model from our relationship with our caregiver which shapes our expectations and beliefs about future relationships
• Hazan and Shaver's love quiz

  conducted a questionnaire-based correlational study to investigate whether people's romantic relationships are shaped by their attachment style to their parents
• Findings: Hazan and Shaver's love quiz

  • secure attachments - secure romantic relationships and believed in true love
  • insecure avoidant/resistant - had less successful relationships, felt more lonely and didn't believe in true love
• Limitations: Hazan and Shaver's love quiz


  • volunteer sample used - results might not be representative of the wider population
  • Participants' answers may not have been accurate, and objective - may not be able to remember their childhood attachment style or may have displayed social desirability bias
  • it was a correlational study - we can't establish a cause and effect relationship between the childhood attachment style and their later relationships