influence of early attachment on later relationships

• • Internal working model>>> (1/2)

  - ~ our mental representations of the world. This affects our future relationships because it carries our perception of what relationships are like

  - Bowlby (1969) that a baby’s first relationship with their primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation of this relationship

  - IWM acts as template for future childhood and adulthood relationships

  - The quality of a baby’s first attachment is crucial because this affects their future relationships -
• Internal working model>(2/2)

  • A baby first experienced a loving relationship with a reliable AF will tend to assume that is how relationships are meant to be
  • tend to seek out functional relationships - without being too uninvolved/ or emotionally close (which is seen as insecure avoidant attachment)
  • Or controlling and argumentative (insecure- resistant attachment)
  • A kid who first attachment was poor will bring these bad experiences into their later relationships

  - May struggle to form relationships

  • May display insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant behavior towards friends and partners
• relationships in childhood>>>

  - attachment type is associated with the quality of relationships in childhood

  - Securely attached babies better friendship ( Kerns 1994)

  - Bully can be predicted by the attachment type

  • Myron – Wilson and Smith (1998) assessed attachment type and involvement in bullying using standard questionnaires for 196 kids aged 7-11 from London

  - Secure kids very unlikely to be involved in bullying

  - Insecure- avoidant kids were most likely to be victims of bullying

  - Insecure- resistant kids were most likely to be the bullies
• relationships in adulthood>>>

  - IWM affects two adult experiences

  - Romantic relationships

  - And parental relationships with their own kids
• relationships in adulthood: romantic relationships>>>

  • Hazan and Shaver (1987) conducted a classic study on the association betwewen romantic adult relationships and attachment

  - Using data from the love quiz, they found that

  - 56% of the respondents were securely attached

  - 25% insecure- avoidant

  • 19% insecure-resistant

  - Those who reported secue attahcments were most likely to have good long lasting romantic experiences.

  - Those who were avoidant tended reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy

  • … this suggests that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships
• relationships in adulthood: romantic relationships >> (2/2)

  - McCarthy ( 1999) studied 40 women who had been assessed when they were babies to establish their early attachment type

  - Those who were securely attached had the best adult and romantic relationships

  - Adults who were insecure- resistant as babies found it difficult to maintain relationships

  - Those who were insecure- avoidant found intimacy hard in romantic relationships
• relationships in adulthood: parental relationships>>>

  - People tend to base their parental style on the on their IWM- attachment types tend to get passed on through generations

  - Heidi Bailey et al (2007) considered attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and their own mothers .

  - Mother – baby attachment was assessed using the strange situation test and mother- mother attachment was assessed using an adult attachment interview

  - Most women had the same attachment type both to their babies and mothers
• ao3 research support+ cp>>> (1/2)

  • Reviews of evidence ( Fearon and Roisman 2017) when looking at studies linking attachment and later relationships concluded that early attachment can predict later attachment, emotional well-being and attachment of to own kids

  - How strong an attachment is depends on the attachment type and later development

  • e.g. disorganised attachment is strongly associated with mental disorders

  - … means secure attachment as a baby can give adavantages for future development and development while disorganised attachment is disadvatanged for kids
• ao3 research support+ cp>>> (2/2)

  cp// However, not all evidence supports the link between early attachment and later development

  - e.g. the Regensburg longitudinal study (Becker –Stoll et al 2008) followed 43 individuals from 1 year of age

  - At age 16, attachment type was assessed using the adult attachment interview – the was no evidence of continuity

  - … means its not clear to what extent the quality of early attahcent really predicts later development – may be other important factors
• ao3 validity issues with retrospective studies>>>

  • Most research on the link between early attachment and later development are not longitudinal studies
  • usually ppt give self-report answers - not always honest,
  • difficult to know whether your assessing early attachment or adult attachment

  - .. means that the measures used in most studies may have confounded variables
• • ao3 confounding variables>>>

  
  

  Some valid studies assess early attachment in infancy e.g. McCarthy (1999) - -associaitons between attachment type and later development may be due to confounding variables e.g parenting style or genes

  influencing- … means you cant be sure that it is early attachment and not another factor infleuncing later development