Early Attachment and Later Relationships

Examples of how our childhood attachments influence adult relationships:

1. The effect of attachment not developing, or being broken, may not be as bad as Bowlby claimed

2. Bowlby’s report in the 1950s led to an increase in ‘stay at home’ mothering. This had a subsequent impact on the economy as fewer women were going to work

How does a child’s internal working model affect childhood relationships?

• Secure Attachment

• Insecure-avoidant Attachment

• Insecure-resistant

How does a child’s internal working model affect adult relationships?

• Secure Relationship

• Avoidant Relationship

• Resistant Relationship

What method did Hazan and Shaver (1987) use?

Hazan and Shaver conducted a ‘love quiz’ in a local newspaper. The quiz had two parts. The first part assessed the attachment type of each person with their parents. The second part involved questions asking about their current beliefs about romantic love

What results did Hazan and Shaver (1987) get?

The first 620 responses were analysed. They found a correlation between the type of childhood attachment and people’s later views on romantic love. Secure children were more likely to have happy and trustworthy relationships. Insecure-avoidant children ended up fearing intimacy and insecure-resistant children were more likely to be worried that they weren’t loved in their relationships

What conclusion did Hazan and Shaver come up with?

The quiz relied on people thinking back to their childhood, which isn’t always accurate. Additionally, the study used a volunteer sample, so a certain type of person might be more likely to respond. Also, people may have answered truthfully to show themselves in a better light. However, they did repeat the study in 2003 and found similar results

How did the adult attachment explore the role of attachment?

• Psychologists developed a way to scientifically assess the relationship between early childhood attachments and later adult attachments. They came up with the adult attachment interview

• It’s based on the idea that it doesn’t really matter exactly what the childhood attachment was- it’s how it was remembered. This again supports the internal model

What research did Main et al complete?

• This semi-structured interview involves a series of questions about childhood attachment relationships, and how these were seen to influence later relationships. The interviewee is asked to give five adjectives explaining their relationship with each of their parents. They’re then asked to explain why they chose each adjective. Other questions are then asked about times they got upset if they ever felt rejected and how they believe their early experiences influenced their adult attachments. Trained coders then classify the results into categories- secure, dismissing, preoccupied or unresolved/disorganised

• Main et al (1985) went on to show that the categories of adult relationships could be predicted from people’s recall of their childhood attachments

What research did Quinton et al (1984) do?

They compared 50 women who had experienced institutional care as children with 50 women who hadn’t. They found that the women who had been raised in institutions were more likely to have parenting difficulties later in life. This suggests that there is a cycle of privation- children who have experienced privation- children who have experienced privation later go on to become less caring parents. Therefore, their children are deprived of a strong maternal attachment and may then be less caring to their children, and so on

What is the reactive attachment disorder by Parker and Forrest (1983)

• They outlined this rare but serious condition, which occurs in children who have been permanently damaged by early experiences such as privation of attachment. Symptoms include:

  1. An inability to give or receive affection

  2. Dishonesty

  3. Poor social relationships

  4. Involvement in crime

What study did Freud and Dan (1951) do?

• They studied six children who were rescued after WWII. They had been orphaned during the war at a few months old, and raised within a deportation camp. Although they were looked after by Jewish people ‘passing through’ to the concentration camps, the children didn’t have time to form any adult attachments, instead forming bonds among themselves. When the war ended, the children were adopted by British families and have since shown few signs of a troubled upbringing, having a normal level of intelligence and maintaining normal relationships