A03 Influence Of Early Relationships On Later Relationships

• Evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed


  Internal working model predicts continuity between security of infant's attachment and that of later relationships
• Conflicting evidence


  Evidence is mixed as McCarthy supports continuity and so provides evidence for internal working model. However, Zimmerman assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents.
• Relationships


  Very little relationships between quality of infant and adolescent attachment , problem as it is not what would we expect
• Most studies have issued with valdity


  Most studies of primary caregiver and other significant people do not make use of strange situation but assess infant-parent attachment via interviews/questionnaires, not in infancy but years later
• Consequences of using interviews/questionnaires

  Creates validity problems. Dependency on respondent being honest and having a realistic views of their own relationships. Looking back in adulthood at one's early relationship to primary attachment figure probably lacks validity as it relies on accurate recollections
• Association does not mean causality

  In those studies where infant attachment type is associated with the quality of later relationships, the implication is that infant attachment types cause the attachment. However, there are alternative experiments for continuity that often exists between infant and later relationships
• Third environmental factor


  3rd environmental factor such as parenting style might have a direct effect on both the child's attachment and ability to form relationships with others
• Temperament


  Alternatively, the child's temperament may influence both infant attachment and quality of later relationships. Counter to Bowlby's view that internal working model causes these later outcomes
• The influence of early attachment is probabilistic

  Some attachment researchers like Bowlby probably exaggerated significance of the influence of quality of infant attachments
• Clarke and Clarke


  Clarke and Clarke describe influence of infant attachment on later relationships as probabilistic. People not entirely predicted to have bad relationships , just in greater risk. Further issue that by emphasising this risk we become too pessimistic about people's futures
• Self-report is conscious but internal working models are not


  Theoretical problem with most research to internal working models as they are unconscious- can't get direct evidence about them by interviews/questions as people only self-report what they're aware of
• Self-reporting on relationships


  When ppts self-report on relationships, they are relying on their conscious understanding of those relationships