3.6.1 The Influence of Early Attachment on Childhood & Adult Relationships

Hazan and Shaver 1987 love quiz

Procedure:

Conducted a questionnaire-based, correlational study to investigate whether people's romantic relationships are shaped by their attachment style to their parents

Findings: The results of Hazan and Shaver's study showed that people with secure attachments to their parents had loving and strong romantic relationships and believed in true love

People with insecure-resistant and insecure-avoidant attachments have less successful relationships and feel lonely.

Conclusion:

Early attachment behaviours seem to influence later attachment behaviours in adulthood relationships

• This study supports the continuity hypothesis

• P: Reliable, replicable

• P: Use of retrospective data, people may not remember/want to be truthful about childhood

• P: Closed questions, limited responses, picking answers that are close enough, less valid data

• P: Large sample

• P: Subjective, statements may not accurately reflect secure, insecure relationships

• P: Correlational not cause and effect

• P: Used a volunteer sample

KEY STUDY: Simpson et al 2007

Secure attachment as a baby -> competent with peers age 6 -> close friendships age 16 -> healthy romantic relationships in early adulthood

Conclusion:

Early infant attachments seem to have an influence on later childhood and adulthood relationships with secure attachments leading to secure relationships in later life

P: Parts of the research are subjective

E: For example, teachers' ratings of competence could very

E: Less valid results

P: Longitudinal study, people might drop out

P: better than Hazan and Shaver because it's not solely based on self-report

E: Not using retrospective data, not relying on memory, actually observing them

Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood. Securely attached infants go on to form the best quality friendships while insecurely attached infants struggle

Myron-Wilson and Smith - Found that insecure-avoidant infants are most likely to be bullied while insecure-resistant infants are most likely to be bullied while insecure-resistant infants are most likely to be bullied (questionnaire to 196 children aged 7-11 from London)

Insecure resistant - want attention

Insecure-avoidant - struggle to form relationships, be isolated get bullied