The influence of early attachment

Cards (13)

  • If a child’s first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver they‘ll assume that this is how relationships are meant to be. As a result, they’ll seek out relationships that are similar
  • A child with bad experiences will bring those experiences into later relationships. As a result, they may struggle to form relationships in the first place
  • Securely attached infants tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas, insecurely attached infants have friendship difficulties
  • Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998) assessed bullying behaviour in 196 children aged between 7-11 in London
  • Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying. Insecure avoidant were most likely to be the victim of bullying. Insecure resistant most likely to be bullied
  • Hazan and Shaver (1987) aimed to investigate whether early attachment styles are reflected in adult relationships by having ps take a ‘love quiz’ which asked questions to classify the attachment style a respondent had in childhood and what their current attachment style was
  • Respondents also had to give their opinion on statements about relationships in general to investigate their internal working model
  • The attachment type shown as a child directly related to how the individual felt about adult relationships
  • Insecure avoidant attachment were more likely to find it difficult to trust people in adult relationships
  • Secure attachment were more likely to enjoy secure adult relationships
  • Insecure resistant were more likely to feel anxious in adult relationships and find it hard to get others as close to them as they wanted
  • Zimmerman (2000) studied a group of children growing up in Germany and found that children’s attachment type didn’t predict adult attachment types. Life events like parental divorce, illness and death had more influence on later security which suggests that such a deterministic viewpoint is too restricting when explaining such behaviour
  • Feeney and Nollar (1992) argued that relationships styles in adulthood can vary. The same adult could be secure in a relationship with one partner but insecure in a later relationship which challenges the idea that attachment types are consistent across all relationships