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influence of early attachment on later relationships

i think this is a 12 marker question but i’m stuck on evaluation. I’ve got bow boy internal working model and hazan and shavers love quiz but i’m so stuck. I don’t know how to evaluate this question.
Many psychologists believe that their is a link between early attachments and how this affects your later relationships.Bowlby came up with the internal working model it is the mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver.They are important in affecting our future relationships because they carry our perception of what relationships look like.A child whose first experience is of loving relationship with a reliable caregiver assumes this is how all relationships are meant to be.They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them.A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these experiences to bear on later relationships.This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place or they do not behave appropriately in them.Internal working models also affect parenting people base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family.

One weakness of internal working model is that there is contradictory evidence.Internal working models predict that attachment type in infancy is usually the same as that characterising the person’s future relationships.However Zimmerman (2000) accessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents.There was very little relationships between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.This is a limitation because it is not what we would expect if internal working models were important in development therefore reducing the reliability of the internal working model.

Attachment type is also associated with the quality of peer relationships.Securely attached infants tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached infants later have friendship difficulties (kerns 1994).Bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type.Wilson and smith (1998) found that secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying.Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children were more likely to be bullies

Hazan and Shaver (1987) conducted a classic study of the association between attachment and adult relationships.To test this Hazan and Shaver devised the β€˜love quiz’ which consisted of 3 different aspects of relationships respondents current and most important relationships,general love experiences and their attachment type.The love quiz was printed in the local newspaper the rocky mountain news and readers were asked to send in their responses.They analysed the first 620 replies sent in from people aged 14-82.They classified the respondents according to Ainsworth’s infant attachment types of secure,insecure-resistant and insecure-avoidant.They found that their attachment type was reflected in their romantic relationships.Secure respondents were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic relationships they described their love experiences as happy,friendly and trusting.Insecure resistant types experienced love as involving obsession and they worried that their partners didn't love them or might abandon them.Insecure-avoidant types feared intimacy and believed that they did not love to be happy.Hazan and Shaver concluded that there was evidence to support the concept of the internal working model having a life long effect.However they did concede that not everyone stayed true to their infant attachment type and that some people did change as they grew older.

One weakness of Hazan and Shaver study is that has issues with validity.This is because they accessed infant-parent attachment by using questionnaires.The validity of questionnaires is limited because they depend on respondents being honest and having realistic views on their relationships.Respondents may not be honest with themselves because they may be embarrassed or ashamed to share details about their infant or adult relationships.It also lacks validity because respondents are asked to remember their infant relationships and the information they may give may not be accurate.Therefore the study’s findings may not be accurate and therefore we can't use the study as evidence for the internal working model.

Another weakness of infant attachment on future relationships is that it is exaggerated.Clarke and Clarke (1998) describe the influence of infant attachment on later relationships as probabilistic.People are not doomed to always have bad relationships because they had attachment problems.They just have a greater risk of problems.They just have a greater risk of problems.Therefore by over emphasising the risk we become too pessimistic about people’s future.

One strength of research into the influence of early attachments on later relationships is that there is supporting evidence from Gerad Mcarthy’s study.He studies 40 adult women who had been accessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type.Those who were securely attached as infants had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships.Adults classed as insecure-resistant as infants had issues maintaining friendships and those who were classed as insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.Therefore this suggests the internal working model is correct and increases its reliability and power.
Have a look at my quizlets. I use acronyms to help me remember the evaluations. They go into a lot of depth and you only really need 3 evaluation points on average so you can pic and choose :smile:. https://quizlet.com/joshbeggs/folders/a-level-psychology?i=gkigs&x=1xqY
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Original post by Js048326
Have a look at my quizlets. I use acronyms to help me remember the evaluations. They go into a lot of depth and you only really need 3 evaluation points on average so you can pic and choose :smile:. https://quizlet.com/joshbeggs/folders/a-level-psychology?i=gkigs&x=1xqY

thank you so much! these look so helpful!

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