Influence of Early attachment on Later relationships 16 marks
Bowlby’s theory of an internal working model suggests that our infant attachment to our
parents creates a schema that acts as a blueprint for future relationships. This can be seen
in Hazen and Shavers ‘love quiz’ which was published in a newspaper and got over 600
responses. They found that early attachment type was strongly correlated to attachment
types in later romantic relationships suggesting that perhaps early attachments do act as a
blueprint for later relationships. Additionally, studies into the effects of institutionalisation
shows the negative impacts of not having an attachment in infancy, Rutter’s study into 165
Romanian orphans found that children who had suffered from privation found it difficult to
form appropriate relationships later in life displaying something known as disinhibited
attachment and being overtly friendly. Even the types of attachment from Mary Ainsworth’s
strange situations have be shown to influence adolescent life. Myron Wilson and Smith
found that insecure resistant infants were more likely to become bullies around age 9 and
10 whereas insecure avoidant infants were more likely to be bullied. This provides a strong
expanse of evidence for the influence of early attachment on later relationships.
However, a significant limitation of this research is that it is purely correlational meaning
causality cannot be established. As the influence of early attachment on later relationships
cannot be studied scientifically we cannot be sure that early attachment is the root cause of
these later behaviours. Additionally, as much of this research only shows a weak positive
correlation of often around +0.4 there is possibility that other factors may play a role. This
reduced the credibility of the findings and points to alternative explanations that may not
have been explored.
Furthermore, another limitation of research into the influence of early attachment on later
relationships is that there is conflicting evidence. Zimmerman studied an infants attachment
type and compared this to their adolescent attachment type and found no correlation. This
conflicting evidence reduced the reliability of the findings into the effect of early attachment
on later relationships.
Still, research into the influence of early attachment on later relationships has positive
implications for society. This is because research such as Rutters or Bowlby’s has shown the
importance of early attachments and emotional caregivers on later development and has
encouraged the improvement of the care of children in institutions and early adoption.
Understanding how early infant life can impact later adult life has allowed improvements to
be made within society in order to support children and provide them a better opportunity
for later in life. This shows that research into this area of attachment has positive practical
applications within society a strength of the research.
A limitation of Hazan and Shavers ‘love quiz’ is that it may suffer from social desirability bias
which could reduce the validity of the findings. This is because the participants may have
answered the questionnaire in a way to make themselves or their childhood seem better
and may have unintentionally influenced results by picking answers that might make them
seem like a better person. This could mean the results were unrepresentative of actual
attachment types, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the link between earlier
and later attachment and relationships.
Bowlby’s theory of an internal working model suggests that our infant attachment to our
parents creates a schema that acts as a blueprint for future relationships. This can be seen
in Hazen and Shavers ‘love quiz’ which was published in a newspaper and got over 600
responses. They found that early attachment type was strongly correlated to attachment
types in later romantic relationships suggesting that perhaps early attachments do act as a
blueprint for later relationships. Additionally, studies into the effects of institutionalisation
shows the negative impacts of not having an attachment in infancy, Rutter’s study into 165
Romanian orphans found that children who had suffered from privation found it difficult to
form appropriate relationships later in life displaying something known as disinhibited
attachment and being overtly friendly. Even the types of attachment from Mary Ainsworth’s
strange situations have be shown to influence adolescent life. Myron Wilson and Smith
found that insecure resistant infants were more likely to become bullies around age 9 and
10 whereas insecure avoidant infants were more likely to be bullied. This provides a strong
expanse of evidence for the influence of early attachment on later relationships.
However, a significant limitation of this research is that it is purely correlational meaning
causality cannot be established. As the influence of early attachment on later relationships
cannot be studied scientifically we cannot be sure that early attachment is the root cause of
these later behaviours. Additionally, as much of this research only shows a weak positive
correlation of often around +0.4 there is possibility that other factors may play a role. This
reduced the credibility of the findings and points to alternative explanations that may not
have been explored.
Furthermore, another limitation of research into the influence of early attachment on later
relationships is that there is conflicting evidence. Zimmerman studied an infants attachment
type and compared this to their adolescent attachment type and found no correlation. This
conflicting evidence reduced the reliability of the findings into the effect of early attachment
on later relationships.
Still, research into the influence of early attachment on later relationships has positive
implications for society. This is because research such as Rutters or Bowlby’s has shown the
importance of early attachments and emotional caregivers on later development and has
encouraged the improvement of the care of children in institutions and early adoption.
Understanding how early infant life can impact later adult life has allowed improvements to
be made within society in order to support children and provide them a better opportunity
for later in life. This shows that research into this area of attachment has positive practical
applications within society a strength of the research.
A limitation of Hazan and Shavers ‘love quiz’ is that it may suffer from social desirability bias
which could reduce the validity of the findings. This is because the participants may have
answered the questionnaire in a way to make themselves or their childhood seem better
and may have unintentionally influenced results by picking answers that might make them
seem like a better person. This could mean the results were unrepresentative of actual
attachment types, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the link between earlier
and later attachment and relationships.
