Early attachment on later relationships

• Internal working model - first attachment

  The quality of a child's first attachment is crucial as it provides as template that will affect the nature of their future relationships. This is due to the influence of the internal working model created by that first attachment.
• Internal working model - good relationships

  A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure assumes this is how all relationships are meant to be. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them.
• Internal working model - bad relationships

  A child with bad experiences of their attachment will bring these experiences to bear on later relationships. This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place or they do not behave appropriately in them
• Internal working model - childhood

  Securely attached babies tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friends. Securely attached children are less likely to be involved in bullying whereas insecure avoidant children are most likely to be victims and insecure resistant babies are more likely to be bullies
• Internal working model - adulthood

  People base their parenting style on their internal working model. Bailey found the majority of mothers had the same attachment classification to their babies as they had to their own mothers. Hazan and Shaver found a link between attachment type and quality of adult romantic relationships.
• Hazan and shaver - the love quiz


  Procedure - the researchers analysed 620 replies to a 'love quiz' printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz assessed three different aspects of relationships : 1)current and most important relationship, 2)general love experiences, 3) attachment type.

  Findings - the respondents' attachment type was reflected in their romantic relationships :

  • Secure respondents were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic relationships
  • Avoidant respondents tended to be jealous and fear intimacy
• Evaluation

  One strength is strong research support. There are many studies showing a link between infant attachment type and later development, including bullying, success in romantic relationships and parenting. A review by psychologists concluded that infant attachment influenced development in many ways. Disorganised attachment was most predictive. This means that insecure attachment appears to convey a disadvantage for children's development.
• Evaluation

  One limitation is validity issues. Most studies assess participants' attachment type in adulthood using questionnares or interviews. These rely on honest answers. A further problem is that these studies assess attachment in late childhood or adulthood and assume that it has remained the same since infancy. This means that the measures of attachment may not be valid.
• Evaluation

  One limitation is possible confounding variables. Some studies do make assessments of infant attachment and follow up children, assessing their later development. However, these studies may be affected by confounding variables. For example, parenting style and personality might affect both attachment and later development. This means that we can never be entirely sure that it is infant attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development.