AO3 - Influence of Early Attachment on Relationships

• Research to support the influence of early attachments on later relationships was conducted by Harlow. Harlow separated monkeys from their mothers at birth and raised them in cages, so they had no early attachments. Harlow found that the monkey’s found it very difficult to form relationships with other monkeys when they were older, e.g. they had difficulty mating and females were inadequate mothers. This supports the influence of early attachment on later relationships as it shows that having a negative early attachment can lead to negative relationships later with partners and own children.
• The influence of early attachment on later relationships can be criticised for determinism. The theory states that our behaviour is determined by early relationships, e.g. negative early attachments leads to a person having negative attachments with their children, neglecting the role of free will. For example, a person who experienced a negative attachment in childhood may choose to have a different relationship with their child and form a positive attachment to what they experienced. Therefore limiting the research into the influence of early attachment on later relationships.
• Moreover, Bowlby’s theory and research into the relationship between early attachment and later attachment could be argued to be socially sensitive. This is because it suggests that later childhood and adult relationship success and quality of their parenting are solely due to a person’s early childhood attachment. It blames the parents for their relationship failures, which could have a damaging effect on these relationships. This therefore raises ethical issues when explaining the influence of early attachment on later relationships.
• Research into the relationship between early attachment and later relationships is based on retrospective data. As the participants often have to think back to their early attachments. This is a weakness because it relies on individuals accurately recalling their early attachment, however memory has been found to be inaccurate. Therefore, this lowers the internal validity of research in to the influence of early attachments on later relationships.