The Influence of Early Attachment on Childhood & Adult Relationships
Internal working model
- According to Bowlby, the attachment a child has with its primary caregiver provides the infant with a schema and template for future relationships
- This will determine if the child loves, trusts and relies on others and the health of future relationships
- The continuity hypothesis: future relationships will follow the pattern based on childhood attachment, impacting childhood relationships, adult relationships and relationships with one's own children
- Secure attachment: when a child has a secure loving relationship with their primary caregiver, they will assume all relationships should be like that and will seek out functional relationships and be functional within these relationships
- When a child does not have a loving relationship with their primary caregiver, they are more likely to be unable to function in their relationships and be:
- Insecure-avoidant: emotionally closed and/or uninvolved in their relationships, making it difficult to form secure attachments
- Insecure-resistant: controlling and argumentative in their relationships, making it difficult to form secure attachments
Hazan and Shaver (1987)
- Conducted a 'love quiz' study, they asked people to respond to a love quiz in the newspaper, the quiz examined feelings in a romantic relationship
- Participants also completed questions on their childhood relationships with their parents and their attachment types
- They had 728 participants split into 2 groups:
- Group 1: 205 men and 415 women
- Group 2: 38 men and 50 women
- They categorised the participants from their responses into three categories:
- Secure: Balanced (equally and when relevant) between closeness and independence
- Avoidant: Avoiding closeness
- Anxious: Clingy, does not cope with their own independence
- They found a correlation between adult relationships and attachment types:
- Securely attached adults believe in long-lasting love and were less likely to get divorced
- Whereas insecure types were more likely to report loneliness
- This suggests there is a link between childhood attachment and adult relationships
McCarthy (1999)
- Studied 40 adult women who had been assessed as children in their early attachment types
- Those who had been assessed as securely attached as infants had the most secure and 'best' adult friendships and relationships
- Those who had been assessed as insecure and resistant as infants, struggled to maintain friendships
- Those who had been assessed as insecure-avoidant, struggled with intimate relationships
- This research supports Bowlby's attachment theory and Hazan & Shaver's (1987) research
Early attachment and childhood relationships
- Research has shown that attachment styles can impact a child's relationships at school and whether they experience bullying or not
- Myron-Smith and Wilson (1998) studied 198 children from London aged 7-11 to complete a questionnaire
- They found insecure-avoidant children were more likely to be bullied, whereas, insecure resistant are more likely to be bullies
- It was felt that the children who had insecure attachments would have more issues with fitting in and, this could lead to bullying as they would be perceived as different
- Children with secure attachments have a positive Internal Working Model and so have a healthy outlook on relationships helping them stay away from bullies and bullying
| Strengths | Limitations |
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The internal working model has a practical real-life application Understanding why a child or adult may be struggling due to their attachment type allows those working with them, to support them better This may help those who were not securely attached, reach relationship stability as they grow older |
Self-report techniques, which were used, can be less valid as participants may under or over-exaggerate There may also be bias in the type of person who replies to adverts in newspapers: e.g. people who had recently suffered a bad break-up and wished to vent their feelings It is difficult to establish a cause and effect as it is a correlation: further research would be required |
Exam Tip
'Later relationships' includes childhood e.g. incidences of bullying in school. Ensure you are aware of this as the question may focus on later childhood relationships, meaning Hazan and Shaver's research is not relevant. In the exam, read the question carefully as this has caught students out in the past.
