Influence of Early Attachment

• Attachment and Later Relationships

  Three stages researched:

  • Childhood relationships
  • Adult relationships
  • Parental relationships with your own children
• Internal Working Model

  = mental representation we have of our relationship to our primary attachment figure. Affects our future relationships because it formed out expectations.
• Childhood relationships

  Kerns - securely attached babies tend to go on to form higher quality friendships, insecurely attached babies tend to have friendship difficulties.
• Adult relationships

  Hazan and Shaver - analysed 620 replies to their 'love quiz' .

  • securely attached = good and long romantic relationships
  • insecurely attached = fear of intimacy and jealousy

  (Supports Bowlby's internal working model)
• Parental relationships

  Bailey et al - attachment of 99 mothers to their mother and their child using the strange situation and interviews. Found the majority to have the same attachment classification to both their child and own mother.
• Influence of Early Attachment : Strength

  Fearon and Roisman found that early attachment type consistently predicts later attachments and emotional wellbeing. Provides research support.
• Influence of Early Attachment : Weakness


  There are issues of validity as most research relies on honesty, so social desirability bias may impact results. Studies tend to be short and revisiting the same participant, suggests methodology used may be confounded with other factors, and so is meaningful.
• Influence of Early Attachment : Weakness


  Many studies assessed attachment in infancy, and so there may be some validity issues as the associations between early and later attachment may be affected by other variables.