The influence of attachments on later life
Bowlby’s internal working model suggests that our first attachment(s) provide a schema for all other relationships that we’ll form in later life. The first acts as a template that determines our expectations and a measure against which later ones can be assessed. This concept is said to be ‘operable’ because it allows predictions to be made and importantly allows for those predictions to be tested.
Early attachments and adult relationships
Hazan and Shaver (1987): The Love Quiz’ (pronounced lerrrrve obviously)
Procedure
The researchers asked people to volunteer to take part in the study.
They were given 2 questionnaires, one to determine their early relationships with parents, the second their later, adult romantic attachments.
Findings
They found three basic types of childhood attachment and related these to later adult attachments:
Bowlby’s internal working model suggests that our first attachment(s) provide a schema for all other relationships that we’ll form in later life. The first acts as a template that determines our expectations and a measure against which later ones can be assessed. This concept is said to be ‘operable’ because it allows predictions to be made and importantly allows for those predictions to be tested.
Early attachments and adult relationships
Hazan and Shaver (1987): The Love Quiz’ (pronounced lerrrrve obviously)
Procedure
The researchers asked people to volunteer to take part in the study.
They were given 2 questionnaires, one to determine their early relationships with parents, the second their later, adult romantic attachments.
Findings
They found three basic types of childhood attachment and related these to later adult attachments:
|
Type of bond
Secure Avoidant Anxious ambivalent |
Childhood experience with parent
Close warm relationship with parents and between parents Mother was cold and rejecting Father was perceived as unfair |
Adult experience with partner
Secure, stable and loving relationship with partner Fear of intimacy, emotional highs and lows, jealousy Obsessive, jealous and emotional highs and lows |
Divorce
6% 12% 10% |
Conclusion
Early attachments do affect later, romantic attachments.
Evaluation of the Love Quiz
As I said a poor piece of research because of the following reasons:
Self selecting sample: the participants volunteered after reading an advert in the Rocky Mountain News. This is a poor way of selecting participants since you are not getting a cross section of the public. Using this sampling technique, for example, you are going to get people with an ‘axe to grind’ or with extremes of experience or opinion.
Questionnaire: People tend not to answer truthfully, particularly on issues of relationships, instead wanting to make themselves look good.
Retrospective: As we saw in memory our recollection of past events is not reliable, so it seems unlikely that people’s memory of their childhood experiences will be accurate
Cause and effect: The researchers have shown a relationship between early attachments and later ones and are assuming that the childhood experience has caused the adult experience. However, other factors could be involved. Kagan (1984) suggested the temperament hypothesis. Children with a pleasant disposition are more likely to form warm relationships with parents and later in life, assuming they maintain their ‘niceness’, will form more loving relationships
Note: from a practical point of view, poor research like this is good when it comes to writing essays or discussing points. You can explain why the study offers support for Bowlby’s IWM but then criticise it using one or more of the points above and then importantly suggest that these criticisms question the extent to which it can really be seen as reliable support. Easy AO2 marks!
A better study but with similar findings is McCarthy (1999). Forty women (aged 25 to 44) who had experienced insecure attachments as children were given various tests (including Hazan and Shavers) to determine the quality of their adult romantic attachments. Women classed as avoidant as children tended to have less successful romantic attachments whereas those classed as ambivalent were more likely to have problems forming non-romantic friendships.
Further evidence is provided by the Minnesota child-parent study
It was found that securely attached infants were more popular as they got older, had the highest social competence and showed the most empathy towards others.
It was assumed by the researchers that secure attachments produce adults that are more trusting of others since their expectations of other people are based on their own trusting outlook. As a result they form friendships more easily.
Bullying
Myron-Wilson & Smith (1998) carried out a longitudinal study on 196 seven to eleven year olds. The finding s showed the following association between early attachment type and bullying:
Later parenting
Harlow found that his monkeys tended to suffer a range of long term social and emotional issues (see earlier notes). One of their deficits becoming poor parents themselves.
It’s been found in humans that parenting style seems to be passed on to the next generation, probably as a part of the range of behaviours in the internal working model. Bailey et al (2007) looked at 99 mothers. They measured their infant’s attachment style using the strange situation and assessed their attachment style as children using interviews. They concluded early attachment style of mother is passed on to their children and then subsequently to future generations raising the possibility that attachment styles and parenting skills run in families.
Validity of research
Much of the research in this area uses either the strange situation (to measure current attachment styles) or questionnaires and interviews (to assess attachment styles of parents when they were infants.
When we looked at the strange situation we saw that validity of the technique was questionable, some studies suggesting it was more valid than others. However, use of self-report techniques (questionnaires and interviews) is far less valid, especially when used to collect information retrospectively. People aren’t always honest in their reporting of childhood events and behaviour and even if they are, the fact that they are recalling information from many decades back makes this form of technique far less valid.
Finally, and again this is repeating points made earlier, we cannot assume a cause and effect relationship. Temperament is another likely reason why early attachments and later relationships are so similar. Happy smiley infants with well-honed social releasers are likely to form more secure attachments. As they grow up, that same temperament will help them form warm, secure relationships with friends and with life-partners.
Early attachments do affect later, romantic attachments.
Evaluation of the Love Quiz
As I said a poor piece of research because of the following reasons:
Self selecting sample: the participants volunteered after reading an advert in the Rocky Mountain News. This is a poor way of selecting participants since you are not getting a cross section of the public. Using this sampling technique, for example, you are going to get people with an ‘axe to grind’ or with extremes of experience or opinion.
Questionnaire: People tend not to answer truthfully, particularly on issues of relationships, instead wanting to make themselves look good.
Retrospective: As we saw in memory our recollection of past events is not reliable, so it seems unlikely that people’s memory of their childhood experiences will be accurate
Cause and effect: The researchers have shown a relationship between early attachments and later ones and are assuming that the childhood experience has caused the adult experience. However, other factors could be involved. Kagan (1984) suggested the temperament hypothesis. Children with a pleasant disposition are more likely to form warm relationships with parents and later in life, assuming they maintain their ‘niceness’, will form more loving relationships
Note: from a practical point of view, poor research like this is good when it comes to writing essays or discussing points. You can explain why the study offers support for Bowlby’s IWM but then criticise it using one or more of the points above and then importantly suggest that these criticisms question the extent to which it can really be seen as reliable support. Easy AO2 marks!
A better study but with similar findings is McCarthy (1999). Forty women (aged 25 to 44) who had experienced insecure attachments as children were given various tests (including Hazan and Shavers) to determine the quality of their adult romantic attachments. Women classed as avoidant as children tended to have less successful romantic attachments whereas those classed as ambivalent were more likely to have problems forming non-romantic friendships.
Further evidence is provided by the Minnesota child-parent study
It was found that securely attached infants were more popular as they got older, had the highest social competence and showed the most empathy towards others.
It was assumed by the researchers that secure attachments produce adults that are more trusting of others since their expectations of other people are based on their own trusting outlook. As a result they form friendships more easily.
Bullying
Myron-Wilson & Smith (1998) carried out a longitudinal study on 196 seven to eleven year olds. The finding s showed the following association between early attachment type and bullying:
- Secure attachment Generally not involved in bullying behaviour
- Insecure avoidant More likely to be the victims of bullying
- Insecure resistant More likely to be the bullies!
Later parenting
Harlow found that his monkeys tended to suffer a range of long term social and emotional issues (see earlier notes). One of their deficits becoming poor parents themselves.
It’s been found in humans that parenting style seems to be passed on to the next generation, probably as a part of the range of behaviours in the internal working model. Bailey et al (2007) looked at 99 mothers. They measured their infant’s attachment style using the strange situation and assessed their attachment style as children using interviews. They concluded early attachment style of mother is passed on to their children and then subsequently to future generations raising the possibility that attachment styles and parenting skills run in families.
Validity of research
Much of the research in this area uses either the strange situation (to measure current attachment styles) or questionnaires and interviews (to assess attachment styles of parents when they were infants.
When we looked at the strange situation we saw that validity of the technique was questionable, some studies suggesting it was more valid than others. However, use of self-report techniques (questionnaires and interviews) is far less valid, especially when used to collect information retrospectively. People aren’t always honest in their reporting of childhood events and behaviour and even if they are, the fact that they are recalling information from many decades back makes this form of technique far less valid.
Finally, and again this is repeating points made earlier, we cannot assume a cause and effect relationship. Temperament is another likely reason why early attachments and later relationships are so similar. Happy smiley infants with well-honed social releasers are likely to form more secure attachments. As they grow up, that same temperament will help them form warm, secure relationships with friends and with life-partners.