influence of early attachment

how does internal working model affect adult relationships?

• a baby's first relationship with primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation and template for future relationships, quality of this attachment affects future relationships

• loving first relationship with reliable attachment figure causes them to assume this is how all relationships should be and seek functional relationships , not too needy or uninvolved, controlling and argumentative

• bad first experience produces poor later relationships, as adults they struggle to form relationships or don't behave properly in them

how does attachment type influence relationships in childhood?

• attachment type is linked to the quality of peer childhood relationships

• Kerns (1994) babies with secure attachments will form he best quality childhood friendships, babies with insecure attachments will have difficulties forming later friendships

Myron-Wilson & Smith (1998) attachment and bullying experiment- procedure

• assessed attachment type and bullying involvement, used standardised questionnaires

• assessed 196 children aged 7-11 from London

Myron-Wilson & Smith (1998) attachment and bullying experiment- findings

• securely attached children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying, either as bullies or be bullied

• insecure avoidant children were most likely to be victims of bullying

• insecure resistant children were most likely to be bullies

Hazan & Shaver (1987) adult relationships experiment- procedure

• conducted a study of the association between attachment and adult relationships

• placed a 'love quiz' in a local American newspaper, 620 people replied, the quiz had 3 sections

• assessed current or most important relationship, assessed general love experiences eg number of partners, assessed attachment type by asking respondent to choose which 3 statements best described their feelings

Hazan & Shaver (1987) adult relationships experiment- findings

• 55% of respondents were securely attached, 25% were insecure avoidant, 19% were insecure resistant

• securely attached respondents most likely to have good and long lasting romantic experiences, avoidance people showed jealousy and fear of intimacy

• early attachment is reflected in later romantic relationships

• securely attached adults believed love is enduring, less likely to be divorced, reported certain experiences eg mutual trust

• insecurely attached adults felt true love was rare, found relationships less easy, more likely to be divorced, fell in and out of love easily

McCarthy (1999) influence of early attachment experiment- procedure

40 female babies assessed to establish their early attachment type, they were then reassessed as adults

McCarthy (1999) influence of early attachment experiment- findings

• securely attached babies grow up to have best adult friendships and romantic relationships

• insecure resistant babies had problems maintaining friendships as adults

• insecure avoidant babies struggle with intimacy in later romantic relationships

how does early attachment influence parenting?

• people tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model, attachment type often passed through generations

• Bailey et al. (2007) 99 mothers assessed for their attachment style and their attachment to their own babies, used the strange situation to assess mother baby attachment, used an adult attachment interview to assess attachment to their own mother

• majority of women had the same attachment to both their babies and own mothers

strength of influence of early attachment- research support

• there are many studies showing a link between infant attachment type and later development, including bullying, emotional wellbeing, success in romantic relationships and parenting

• a review by Fearon and Roisman (2017) concluded that infant attachment influenced development in many ways, disorganised attachment was most predictive eg of later mental disorder and can seriously disadvantage children

• means that insecure attachment appears to convey a disadvantage for children development and secure attachment as a baby has advantages for future development

counterpoint of influence of early attachment- contradicting research

• not all evidence supports the link between infant attachment and later development, eg Becker Stoll et al. (2008) Regensburg longitudinal study followed 43 individuals from 1 year old, at age 16 attachment was assessed using the adult attachment interview

• study found no evidence that the attachment as a baby was associated with adult attachment

• means its not clear how strongly attachment influences later development

weakness of influence of early attachment- validity of retrospective studies

• early attachment is often assessed retrospectively as longitudinal studies are rare and expensive, researchers ask adult participants questions about their relationship with their parents, relies on honest and accurate answers

• a further problem is that these studies assess attachment in late childhood or adulthood and assume it has remained the same since infancy

• means the measures of attachment may not be valid and it is hard to know if we're assessing early attachment or adult attachment

weakness of influence of early attachment- confounding variables

• some studies make assessments of infant attachment and follow up children, assessing their later developing and identifying associations between early attachment and later development

• however, these studies could be affected by confounding variables, eg parenting style could influence attachment quality and later development, personality could also have a generic component

• means we can’t be entirely sure that it is infant attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development

evaluation of influence of early attachment- balancing opportunity and risk

• Clarke & Clarke (1998) influence of early attachment is likely to be probabilistic, an insecure attachment doesn't cause increased risk of later developmental problems, but knowing insecure it does can provide opportunities to intervene

• however this may lead to overly pessimistic expectations and create a self fulfilling prophecy, may increase risk of unsuccessful romantic relationships but other factors are likely to be involved

• means knowing someones attachment history provides an opportunity to intervene and improve later development and may do more harm than good