The influence of early attachments

What was Bowlby’s internal working model

• Bowlby’s theory that infants develop a schema based on their attachment to their primary caregiver

• This schema acts as a template for how relationships in their future will work- such as if people can be trusted or if relationships are loving

What is the continuity hypothesis?

• A hypothesis that suggests that an individual’s future relationships will follow a pattern based on their IWM

• This pattern includes an individual’s childhood friendships, adult partners and parenting relationships with their children

Haven and Shaver

• They argue that an adult’s relationship type is a continuation of their infant attachment style and be classed as secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant

• They argue that children with a secure attachment type will become more socially capable in childhood and adulthood than insecure types due to an effective IWM

Haven and Shaver’s research on the influence of early attachment

• Haven and Shavers (1987)- Love quiz: 620 ppts responded to a newspaper love quiz

• Questions included feeling on romance and categorised ppts’ adult relationships styles into:

• Secure- those who looked for a balance between closeness and independence

• Avoidant- ppts who avoided intimacy and anxious

• Anxious- those who couldn’t cope well with independence

• The questionnaire also assessed childhood attachment type

• It was found that 56% had secure adult relationships, 25% were avoidant and 19% were anxious

• There was a correlation between adult and child attachment types

• Securely attached adults believed love was long-lasting, reported happiness in their relationships and tend to not get divorced

• Insecure types types reported more loneliness

• These results suggest a link between early attachment and adult relationships

Research on the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships (McCarthy)

• McCarthy (1999)

• Studied 40 adult wimen assessed for attachment style using the strange situation as infants

• It was found that adults with long-lasting and secure adult friendships and romantic relationships were securely attached in infancy

• Those assessed as avoidant had poor romantic relationshis

• Those classed as resistant had poor friendships

• Both insecure groups were more likely to have lived with a deviant partner

• These results suggest that early attachment style is linked to the quality of adult romantic relationships and friendships

Research on the influence of early attachment on childhood relationships

• Myron-Wilson (1998)

• Assessed 196 children with an average age of 9 for indications of bullying or victimhood, as well as parenting style

• It was found that those assessed as bullies had low scores in parental warmth and high scores in parental neglect

• Those assessed as victims scored highly on parental punitiveness (punishments)

• These results suggest parental attachment styles can directly influence their childhood relationships with their peers

• Verissimo (2011)

• Observed preschool children’s behaviour with their mothers and fathers And then later conducted a follow up assessment of social interactions when the child started nursery

• A strong attachment to the father was the best predictor of the ability to make friends in school- which suggests an important role for fathers in socialisation

Kagan’s temperament hypothesis

• Kagan (1984)

• Argued that innate temperament (the child’s natural personality and emotional style) is the main influence on attachment types rather than caregiver sensitivity

• Suggests that attachment reflects temperament- a naturally easy-going infant is more likely to seem securely attached

• Explains continuity without the IWM- the link between early and later relationships can be explained by stable temperament- eg: a shy infant struggles with peers and later romantic relationships because of personality, not attachment type

• He found that infants’ temperament type influenced how they behaved in the strange situation

Evaluation of the influence of early attachment on childhood and adulthood relationships✅

• Real life applications to the understanding of early attachment- highlights that the role of the father has an important role in socialisation

• Schools can use this knowledge about attachment types to address childhood bullying and loneliness

• Early adapting of a child’s IWM would help children achieve relationships which would result in stability later on in adulthood relationships

• Potential positive economic implications- more securely attached infants would lead to reduced costs to the economy related such as divorce costs and mental health issues linked to relationship breakdowns- less financial strain on the legal system and less pressure on the healthcare system

Evaluation of the influence of earl attachment on childhood and adult relationships

• Much of the research can be considered flawed due to being correlational therefore it is impossible to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between early childhood development and later childhood relationship styles- there can be other variables such as poverty

• The reliance of self-reporting infant relationships reduces the internal validity of the research- recall may be inaccurate due the reconstructive nature of memory or due to demand characteristics and social desirability bias

• Kagan’s temperament hypothesis suggests infant and adult relationships are linked but are due to inherited high or low reactive temperament- high reactivity results in distressed babies who grow into anxious adults- low reactive turn into outgoing children

• The continuity hypothesis is deterministic- suggests that individuals are doomed to repeat the behaviour they showed during childhood in adult relationships- people like to think they have complete conscious control over their relationships and not set during infancy due to the IWM