Early Attachments & Later Relationships

• Internal working model


  According to Bowlby, the attachment a child has with its primary caregiver provides the infant with a schema and template for future relationships
• The attachment a child has with its primary caregiver


  Determines if the child loves, trusts and relies on others and the health of future relationships
• Continuity hypothesis


  Future relationships will follow the pattern based on childhood attachment, impacting childhood relationships, adult relationships and relationships with one's own children
• Secure attachment


  • When a child has a secure loving relationship with their primary caregiver, they will assume all relationships should be like that and will seek out functional relationships and be functional within these relationships
• Insecure-avoidant


  • Emotionally closed and/or uninvolved in their relationships, making it difficult to form secure attachments
• Insecure-resistant


  • Controlling and argumentative in their relationships, making it difficult to form secure attachments
• Hazan and Shaver (1987) conducted a 'love quiz' study, they asked people to respond to a love quiz in the newspaper, the quiz examined feelings in a romantic relationship
• Participants also completed questions on their childhood relationships with their parents and their attachment types
• Attachment types categorised


  • Secure: Balanced (equally and when relevant) between closeness and independence
  • Avoidant: Avoiding closeness
  • Anxious: Clingy, does not cope with their own independence
• Securely attached adults


  Believe in long-lasting love and were less likely to get divorced
• Insecure types


  Were more likely to report loneliness
• McCarthy (1999) studied 40 adult women who had been assessed as children in their early attachment types
• Those who had been assessed as securely attached as infants


  Had the most secure and 'best' adult friendships and relationships
• Those who had been assessed as insecure and resistant as infants


  Struggled to maintain friendships
• Those who had been assessed as insecure-avoidant


  Struggled with intimate relationships
• Research has shown that attachment styles can impact a child's relationships at school and whether they experience bullying or not
• Insecure-avoidant children


  Were more likely to be bullied
• Insecure resistant children


  Were more likely to be bullies
• Children with secure attachments


  Have a positive Internal Working Model and so have a healthy outlook on relationships helping them stay away from bullies and bullying
• Strengths


  • The internal working model has a practical real-life application
  • Understanding why a child or adult may be struggling due to their attachment type allows those working with them, to support them better
  • This may help those who were not securely attached, reach relationship stability as they grow older
• Limitations


  • Self-report techniques, which were used, can be less valid as participants may under or over-exaggerate
  • There may also be bias in the type of person who replies to adverts in newspapers: e.g. people who had recently suffered a bad break-up and wished to vent their feelings
  • It is difficult to establish a cause and effect as it is a correlation: further research would be required