influence of early attachment

• Internal working model


  The quality of a child's first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships. Infants develop a schema based on their attachment to their primary caregiver.
• Positive experiences with attachment figures

  A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to assume that this is how relationships are meant to be.

  They will seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them.
• Negative experiences with attachment figures


  A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to later life relationships.

  These individuals may struggle to form relationships in the first place or they may behave inappropriately when they have managed to form relationships.
• Hazan and Shaver's Love Quiz


  Hazen and Shaver placed a 'Love Quiz' in a newspaper.

  The quiz asked questions about current attachment experiences and about attachment history to identify current and childhood attachment types. The quiz also asked about attitudes towards love (an assessment of the internal working model).

  They found a positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences. Securely attached described their love experiences as happy, friendly and trusting. These relationships were more enduring.
• Hazan and Shaver's conclusions


  There was evidence to support the concept of the internal working model having a life-long effect.

  However, not everyone stayed true to their infant attachment style and some people did change as they grew older.
• Childhood friendships


  Individuals who were securely attached as infants were more socially competent, less isolated, more popular and more empathetic.

  The internal working model explains this, as securely attached infants expect others to be friendly and trusting, making them easier to get on with.
• Poor parenting


  The lack of an internal working model means that individuals do not have a reference point to help them form healthy relationships with their own children.
• Romantic relationships


  Hazan and Shaver showed securely attached individuals had longer lasting romantic relationships.
• - Evidence on continuity of attachment is mixed


  E - Some studies do appear to support continuity and so provide evidence to support internal working models. However, Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. The findings indicated that there was very little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.

  E - This outcome is not what would be expected if the internal working models were important in development.

  L - Therefore, we have to consider that the internal working model might not have validity.
• - Lack of validity


  E - Most studies of the influences of early attachment on later relationships lack validity. Many assessments of early attachments and current day attachments rely on the use of questionnaires and interviews as a means of categorising participants as a specific attachment type.

  E - This data is retrospective (data that relies on the participants memory, reporting events from the past).

  L Therefore, there is a high chance that the data being collected in these studies is inaccurate and therefore calls into question the validity of the research findings.
• - Correlational research


  E - Research assessing the internal working model is that association between early and later life attachments does not always mean causality. There are alternative explanations for the continuity that is often observed between infant and adult attachments. A third environmental factor such as parenting style might have a direct effect on both attachment and the child's ability to form relationships with others.

  E - This suggests that the IWM may not be the direct cause of future attachments and there could be other factors involved.
• - Overly deterministic


  E - Determinism, in the context of the internal working model, is the idea that individuals have no choice but to have poor adult relationships if they had poor attachment experiences as children.

  E - This is clearly not true as researchers have found plenty of examples where participants have experienced happy adult relationships despite not having been securely attached as infants.
• Continuity hypothesis


  Suggests an individual's future relationship will follow a pattern based on their IWM. This pattern includes an individual's childhood friendships, adult partners and parenting relationships with their children.
• Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory


  Suggests children with a disrupted attachment with their primary caregiver in the critical period will have problems with social, emotional and intellectual development, adversely affecting the quality of adult relationships.