Critical period

The maternal deprivation hypothesis that of a child is deprived of a caregiver within this critical period, there could be long-term physical, social, emotional, and intellectual effects.

Critical period for attachment

First three years

As with imprinting, there is a critical period in which attachment must happen before it may never develop.

In humans, attachment must happen within the first three years. Otherwise, attachment may not develop.

Broken attachment

If the child does not develop attachment, they may have social and emotional difficulties later in life.

They may have trouble forming and maintaining relationships.

This also could happen if the attachment is broken, for example, if the caregiver dies.

Maternal deprivation

The maternal deprivation hypothesis that of a child is deprived of a caregiver within this critical period, there could be long-term physical, social, emotional, and intellectual effects.

Hazan and Shaver (1987): evidence for the internal working model.

Method

They developed a two-part 'love quiz' that was published in a local newspaper.

The first part of the quiz asked questions about the attachment between the persona and their parents.

The second part of the quiz looked at what the person's current opinions were on romantic love.

Results

There was a correlation between the childhood experiences of attachment and the current opinions of romantic love out of the 620 responses analysed.

For example, the people who had more trusting and happy relationships with their parents had more secure views of romantic love.

On the other hand, people who did not have happy relationships with their parents had insecure-avoidant views or insecure-resistant views of romantic love.

Insecure-avoidant is characterised by a fear of intimacy and insecure-resistant is characterised by anxiety over the level of love received in relationships.

Conclusions

The results showed evidence of Bowlby's internal working model

In other words, the early attachments formed during infancy and childhood predict and affect future adult relationships.

Evaluation

The study was a volunteer sample. So the study could have attracted a particular type of person.

It was a self-report study which could either be inaccurate or untruthful.

The inaccuracy could stem from a faulty memory of childhood experiences.

While the untruthfulness could be a result of people lying, minimising or exaggerating answers.

The study was replicated by Hazan and Shaver in 2003 and the results were similar. This demonstrates reliability.