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influence of early attachment - Coggle Diagram
influence of early attachment
explanation
internal working model’ that acts as a template for the future
This is the ‘continuity hypothesis’ which states that similar relationships will occur throughout life
type and quality of relationships that individuals have with their primary caregivers provides the foundation for adult relationships
better the ‘quality’ of the first relationship, the better the relationships we will be capable of later
templates can be transmitted across generations i.e. if a child has a poor relationship with their mother, they will go on to transmit that negative relationship to their own children
Hazan and Shaver (1987): the love quiz
asked people to volunteer to take part in the study via a newspaper advertisement.
620 respondents were given questionnaire
to determine the quality of their early relationships with their parents, as well as the quality of their later, adult romantic attachments
Findings: they found that their participants appeared to have displayed the three basic types of childhood attachment and they related these to their later adult attachments
Insecure Avoidant: Fear of intimacy relationship experiences
Insecure Resistant: Clingy, : jealous and emotionally needy in terms of their relationship experiences
Secure: Secure, stable and loving relationship experiences
Bailey et al 2007
assessed 99 mothers with 1 year old babies
the quality of their attachment to their own mothers using a standard internal procedure
tested the idea that attachment style can affect later ability to parent
also assessed the attachment of the babies to the mothers by observation in the strange situation
mothers who reported poor attachments to their own parents in the interviews were much more likely to have children classified as insecurely attached according to the observations.
supports the idea of an internal working model and the fact that early attachments can shape our later life relationships and be passed on through generations.
weakness
Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents
The findings indicated that there was very little reliability between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.
evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed
This is a problem because this outcome is not what would be expected if the internal working model was important in development and therefore lowers confidence in validity.
lacks validity
report bias
data collected
questionnaires + interviews
weakness
other variables could also be involved
Kagan (1984) has suggested an alternative explanation – the temperament hypothesis – suggesting that an infant’s innate temperament is another intervening variable
found a relationship between early childhood attachments and later relationships, it cannot be assumed that this is a cause and effect relationship.
Children with a pleasant disposition, with happy, smiley faces with well-honed social releasers are more likely to form warm, loving and secure relationships with parents
unable to draw cause and effect conclusions