EARLY EXPERIENCE ON ADULT RELATIONSHIPS
Specification: The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model.
THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON CHILDHOOD AND ADULT RELATIONSHIPS, INCLUDING THE ROLE OF AN INTERNAL WORKING MODEL
THE EFFECTS OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON ADULT RELATIONSHIPS
BACKGROUND
Attachment theory is primarily a psychodynamic theory. For example, Bowlby observed that there was a direct link between the pathology of a Mother and disturbances in the child. Like many psychodynamic theories, attachment theory also has evolutionary principles. For example, Bowlby thought that the inability to form successful relationships would affect an individual’s life chances as they would be less likely to be able to reproduce, and even if they did, relationship difficulties would affect not only their survival but also the quality and health of any offspring they had. This is demonstrated by Bowlby’s belief that attachment experiences had long-lasting effects (the continuity hypothesis) that tended to persist across the lifespan.
A01 DESCRIPTION OF THEORY
.Many Psychologists believe that the quality and pattern of adult relationships are related to the quality of childhood care. This theory is based upon John Bowlby’s attachment theory.
The core elements of Bowlby’s theory are that infants become attached to individuals who are sensitive and responsive in social interactions with them and who remain consistent caregivers during a critical period in their development (from birth to two and a half years of age). This is known as the continuity hypothesis, i.e., that experiences in childhood continue into adulthood.
Bowlby (1973) proposed that when a child is confident that an attachment figure is available, he is less prone to fear and more likely to trust others. Moreover, suppose the attachment figure is responsive and protective while at the same time respecting the need to grow and explore the environment. In that case, the infant will develop positive perceptions, emotions, and expectations that will enable them to succeed in later relationships because they will view other people the same way their caregiver treats them. So they will approach people with trust and optimism. Bowlby believed this early parental care formed the prototype for future relationships by developing a healthy internal working model (a kind self-schema) that views itself as loving, deserving and dependable. Bowlby said that when we form our primary attachment, we also mentally represent what a relationship is (internal working model), which we then use for all other relationships in the future, i.e. friendships, working and romantic relationships.
However, suppose the caregiver/parent rejects or ignores calls for comfort and attention and prohibits exploratory activity. In that case, the infant is more likely to construct an internal working model of himself as unworthy and ineffectual (John Bowlby, 1969).
Bowlby’s research focused primarily on poor attachment and delinquency. Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver extended attachment theory research on adult romantic relationships in the late 1980s. Four attachment styles were identified in adults: secure, anxious-preoccupied, dismissive-avoidant and fearful-avoidant. These roughly correspond to infant classifications: secure, insecure-ambivalent, insecure-avoidant and disorganised/disoriented.
A03 RESEARCH
Hazan and Shaver's hypothesis is supported by their research, which used a love quiz to show correlations between attachment style and relationship satisfaction.
Hazan and Shaver’s study did have some plus points: a large sample and some significant replication results. However….
A03: INTERNAL VALIDITY:
In Hazan and Shaver’s study, participants had to classify their attachment style by retrospectively analysing their childhood experiences. It is doubtful that individuals could remember their early attachment experiences, as childhood amnesia, also called infantile amnesia, is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories before the age of 2–4 years. For the first 1–2 years of life, brain structures such as the limbic system, which holds the hippocampus and the amygdala and is involved in memory storage, are not yet fully developed. This means that participants in the study would have relied on their parental recollections of their infancy or made it up!
This is a sensitive area, and many parents would want to appear socially desirable and present themselves as wonderful caregivers. Again, caution must be applied to the results and interpretation of how childhood affects relationships, as the classification validity was methodologically unsound.
A03: EXTERNAL VALIDITY/POPULATION VALIDITY:
The sampling process in Hazan and Shaver’s study has external validity issues as not only did it recruit Canadian individuals so it was culturally biased, but the participants were self-selecting. Maybe only a specific type of individual would read the Rocky Mountain News, and perhaps only a particular kind of Rocky Mountain News reader would respond to the socially sensitive subject of childhood attachment, e.g., a reflective empathetic type. This means we can only apply the theory to a small sample of people. Volunteer sampling 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 will get people with an ‘axe to grind’ or extremes of experience or opinion.
A03: MIXED EVIDENCE
Another weakness of this theory is that the evidence is mixed. For example, some studies do appear to support continuity and provide evidence to support internal working models. For instance, Bailey et al. (2007) concluded that mothers' early attachment styles are passed on to their children and future generations, raising the possibility that attachment styles and parenting skills run in families.
Moreover, longitudinal studies such as Simpson’s and Sroufe’s show that securely attached children have more successful relationships.
Other well-known examples of supporting research in this area are McCarthy’s (1999) correlational study on women who had experienced insecure attachments as children. She found that this correlated with problems in relationships.
However, Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. The findings indicated a minimal relationship between infant and adolescent attachment quality. This is a problem because this outcome is not what would be expected if the internal working models were important in development.
A03: CAUSE AND EFFECT:
Much of the research on the influence of childhood on relationships is non-experimental, mostly in the form of questionnaires that are then correlated; case studies are also common. This is because there would be too many variables to control in experimental research, which would also be unethical. Instead of using experiments, researchers use less valid and reliable research methods, such as questionnaires and interviews.
We must carefully apply a causal link to non-experimental research because non-experimental researchers cannot show cause-and-effect relationships. Therefore, caution must be applied to the belief that childhood attachment affects adult romantic relationships because other variables have not been controlled.
For example, a severe limitation of the continuity hypothesis is its failure to recognise the profound influences of social class, gender, ethnicity, and culture on personality development. These factors, independent of a mother's sensitivity, can be as significant as the quality of the early attachment.
A03: ALTERNATIVE THEORIES
Research has demonstrated that social and economic factors have a powerful influence on development. The strongest predictor of adult depression or anxiety in many cultures is growing up in a disadvantaged social class. For example, Mississippi has a more significant proportion of minority residents living in poverty than North Dakota, and the incidence of depression in Mississippi is three times that of North Dakota, according to the Centres for Disease Control.
Therefore, Simpson and Sroufe's results may also be related to social and economic factors. Or, as Kagan hypothesised, it could also be that babies are born with innate social and unsociable temperaments, which direct the quality of a caregiver's parenting style. So, difficult babies cause insecure parenting (because they are grumpy), which is not the other way around, as most commonly inferred.
A03 OTHER REASONS FOR RELATIONSHIPS TO BREAK UP
Other variables may cause poor relationships. Marital and relationship dysfunction is not rare in Western society. 40% of marriages end, and one could assume a proportion of intact marriages are unhappy. Indeed, childhood experiences are not solely to blame. Modern living is very stressful, and illness, loss of attraction, and a lack of rewards, for example, may be contributory.
A03: VALIDITY OF THE STRANGE SITUATION AS A MEASURING TOOL
The trouble with all the research listed above is that it relies on the strange situation (SS) as the tool for measuring attachment. This tool is not without criticisms. Many psychologists believe that the peculiar situation is not a scientific way to measure attachment anyway, as the validity of some of Ainsworth’s techniques and categories was questionable. She didn’t include disorganised attachment, and she operationalised resistance very poorly. It changed meaning when interpreted by Japanese researchers, and many psychologists are unsure if resistant parenting is confusing or clingy.
Therefore, we cannot assume that the study participants who used the strange situation had valid assessments of their attachment type. This means that Simpson and Sroufe's findings cannot conclusively support the idea that early attachment style leads to, for example, fear of intimacy in close relationships. Fear of intimacy in close relationships could be down to autism, high testosterone, or other factors not connected to upbringing.
A03: CULTURAL BIAS
The relationship-continuity-hypothesis is culturally biased as it assumes that people in all cultures are free to have short-term relationships or divorce their spouses. Most of the world has arranged marriages with low rates of divorce. According to this theory, this would mean that collectivist countries have more securely attached children. It could also mean that leaving or staying in an arranged marriage has little to do with relationship satisfaction and childhood experience, and more with the values and customs of collectivist cultures, e.g., supporting your family before your individualistic desires. This means that this theory is ethnocentric and low in ecological validity.
A03 ALPHA MALE:
This theory is biased, as it does not distinguish between male and female relationship experiences. The fact that there may be essential gender differences is supported as more males are classified as avoidantly attached than females. Avoidant attachment types are very similar to men with extremely high testosterone levels, which might explain why more males fall into this category. e.g., extremely independent, self-directed, and often uncomfortable with intimacy. They are also commitment-phobes and experts at rationalising their way out of intimate situations. There are many similarities between avoidantly attached individuals and alpha males. This suggests that attachment style may be influenced by gender and thus nature, not their caregivers' attachment style.
A03: GENDER BIAS
Yet, one could argue that being classified as avoidantly attached would have more repercussions for females. According to evolutionary theory, females need males to invest resources in them to secure the survival of themselves and their offspring. This may be less likely to happen if a female is avoidantly attached, as her emotional distance may cause relationship difficulties in intimacy and sex. However, males who are emotionally cold and distant would not be prevented from spreading their genes, which, according to evolutionary theory, is their purpose. This point also contradicts the idea that attachment theory has continuity, as it has more continuity or repercussions for females. Attachment theory has evolutionary principles, so gender issues are not discussed.
A03 DETERMINISM
This deterministic theory suggests that individuals with poor attachment experiences cannot form successful relationships. This is quite depressing, as it means people will fail at connecting with others.
A03 SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH/SEXIST
This theory is harmful as it blames parents. However, Bowlby and others stressed primary caregivers other than the Mother. Critics have still labelled this theory as misogynistic, as ultimately, Mothers are the primary caregivers and are the ones who feel the burden of blame for having an insecurely attached child. Some feminists have criticised attachment theory as being a sexist attack on working mothers. However, Bowlby felt that Mothering was the most critical role of our species and felt he elevated the role of primary caregiver rather than derided it.
A03: REAL LIFE APPLICATIONS
This theory has many real-life applications for social policy. It has massive implications for the current government guidelines on childcare ratios in nurseries. It also has the potential to teach vulnerable parents how to bond with their babies, which has long-term benefits for society.
A03 CRITICISING THE CENTRAL IDEA OF THE THEORY, E.G., THAT MARRIAGE AND TRUE LOVE ARE THE NORMS
This theory assumes that relationship longevity in romantic relationships and belief in “true love” are the norms. This is exemplified in Fennel and Noller’s research, which noted that securely attached people had the most long-term relationships and avoidant attached types had the most short-lived, least intense relationships. Also, Hazan and Shaver asked participants questions about whether they believed love was forever. Surely marriage and assumed monogamy are social constructions; in other words, things that exist not in objective reality, but as a result of human interaction and culture? Ideas about soul mates and marriage exist because humans agree they exist.
Yet, statistics on relationship duration and divorce in the West would suggest that relationship longevity is not the norm, so vast numbers of people are now insecurely attached, or norms surrounding relationships are changing. This means that the assumption that short-term relationships may be linked to an insecure childhood is wrong. It may just be that people are more willing to experiment with other types of relationships: e.g., polygamy, singletons, living apart and flings.
The abovementioned ideas suggest that the central idea in Hazan and Shaver’s theory may be wrong. For example, people do not have to believe in “true love” to have successful relationships; what if they are evolutionary psychologists or scientists?
Moreover, according to evolutionary theory, monogamy was not the standard in our ancestral environments. They see physical attraction (what is known as romantic love) as finite, lasting a maximum of two years. This “love window” supposedly allows the female to ensure she gets protected and fed whilst she is pregnant and physically encumbered by her immobile baby for two years, until it toddles basically. Her hands are free, and she can regain some independence to forage. The father can then spread his abundant seed elsewhere (charming!). The father will probably still look after this female and child, but not so intensely or devotedly. Their romantic love might be replaced with companionate love, as most long-term relationships are. It is thought that early humans were polygamous. In any case, after two years, the love chemicals: dopamine, adrenaline and oxytocin have diminished, and partners may become less physically attracted to each other and more likely to cheat, end the relationship or be unhappy.
Evolutionary and biological psychologists do not believe longevity is the norm for many animal species. Although many animals seem to engage in long-term relationships, they also engage in infidelity, illegitimate offspring, and even infanticide. Research suggests that humans are often no different. This means that Hazan and Shaver may be wrong in assuming that monogamy is a valid way to test relationship success.
It could be that Hazan, Shaver, and similar researchers are measuring the wrong relationship dynamics, and undoubtedly, some of the ideas in Bowlby’s original theory are irrefutable. For example, Rutter showed that privation had long-lasting effects on social relationships if adoption was later than the sixth month. And since then, FMRIS have shown how abuse can be hard-wired into the brain in a form of negative plasticity if it takes place during a critical period. So, it does seem reasonable to suggest that poor early care might impact the ability to relate later in life.
It could be that it is not your ability to live in a long-term relationship or your belief in “true love” that matters. Some Psychologists think that a better measure of early attachment dynamics might be to look at the security of the self about an attachment rather than a belief about what love is or how long it lasts, i.e. the general state of mind regarding attachment; how much empathy and respect you display in key relationships with parents, children, relatives, friends and associates? Whether you put up with abusive relationships or provoke abuse? This means that some of the ideas presented by Bowlby may have been inaccurately tested.
A03 NATURE OR NURTURE OR BOTH?
Despite this theory’s evolutionary principles, it focuses mainly on nurture or psychodynamic principles, e.g., how early experience causes harm. Current research, e.g., Sue Gerhardt, investigates how nurture affects nature. In other words, how the environment can change the architecture of your brain. For example, why love and sensitive parenting are essential to brain development in the early years of life, especially in creating vital neural connections and a well-developed prefrontal cortex, and how early abuse can become hard-wired into the brain.
For example, when a baby is upset, the hypothalamus produces cortisol in the subcortex at the brain's centre. In normal amounts, cortisol is fine, but if a baby is exposed for too long or too often to stressful situations (such as being left to cry), its brain becomes flooded with cortisol, and it will either over- or under-produce cortisol whenever the child is exposed to stress. Too much is linked to depression and fearfulness; too little to emotional detachment and aggression. Children of alcoholics have a raised cortisol level, as do children of very stressed mothers.
These findings support the theory that quality of care can affect relationships, not because of an internal working model, but because early care can affect brain development and lead to lifelong changes in brain chemistry and structure.
This section focuses on Bowlby’s idea of an ‘internal working model‘, also known as a ‘schema‘. A good way to understand schemas is to think of them as a template we create to help us understand how things work.
Your early experiences of attachment formed between you and your caregiver (usually a parent), form a template (schema) for how you will go on to judge what other future relationships with other people.
This particular section focuses on how childhood and adult relationships are affected by this internal working model so we need to prepare for three possible questions, which are:
Explain Bowlby’s Internal Working Model
Explain how the Internal working model affects childhood relationships
Explain how this internal working model affects adult relationships
A02 NATURE OR NURTURE
The fact that they may be essential gender differences is supported by the fact that more males are classified as avoidantly attached. Avoidant attachment types are extremely independent, self-directed, and often uncomfortable with intimacy. They are commitment-phobes and experts at rationalising their way out of any intimate situation. Men are more likely than women to be avoidant types. There are many similarities between avoidantly attached individuals and alpha males, which leaves this theory in a bit of a pickle, as, according to ET, females are thought to be better off with an alpha male. Some could argue that testosterone may contribute to avoidantly attached individuals, which might explain why more males fall into this category. This suggests that attachment style may be nature, not nurture, as caregivers are not more inclined to like girls ’ babies. This means attachment style could be biological, and the theory is wrong.
Despite this theory’s evolutionary principles, its focus is mainly on nurture. Yet current research, e.g., Sue Gerhardt, investigates how nurture affects nature. For example, love and sensitive parenting are essential to brain development in the early years of life, especially in creating vital neural connections and a well-developed prefrontal cortex.
More importantly, though, is the hormone cortisol. When a baby is upset, the hypothalamus produces cortisol in the subcortex at the brain's centre. In normal amounts, cortisol is fine, but if a baby is exposed for too long or too often to stressful situations (such as being left to cry), its brain becomes flooded with cortisol, and it will either over- or under-produce cortisol whenever the child is exposed to stress. Too much is linked to depression and fearfulness; too little to emotional detachment and aggression. Children of alcoholics have a raised cortisol level, as do children of mothers who are under a lot of stress.
These findings support the theory that quality of care can affect relationships, but not because of an internal working model, but because early care can affect brain development and lead to lifelong changes in the brain's chemistry and structure.
A02 DETERMINISM
This theory is deterministic; it suggests that individuals who have had poor attachment experiences cannot form successful relationships. This is untrue, as research has shown that people can overcome adversity. This means that this theory needs to include other approaches. Indeed, individual differences in genes may be contributory. Some individuals may have inherited less Serotonin, making them more difficult babies and more challenging to bond with.
At least this theory does not blame the individual for personality problems. However, if individuals think their fate is inevitable, they may not try changing their insecure attachments, making relationship difficulties lifelong.
A02 SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH
This theory is harmful as it blames parents, although Bowlby and others stressed the primary caregiver rather than the Mother. Critics have still labelled this theory as misogynistic, as ultimately, Mothers are the primary caregivers and are the ones who feel the burden of blame for having an insecurely attached child.
This theory has many real-life applications for social policy. It has massive implications for the current government guidelines on childcare ratios in nurseries. It also has the potential to teach vulnerable parents how to bond with their babies. Both these applications have long-term benefits for society.
The Influence Of Early Attachment
This new section focuses on Bowlby’s idea of an internal working model (a schema). A good way to understand schemas is to consider them a “template”. Your early experiences of attachment form a “template” for how you will judge future relationships, and “Schema” is just a fancy way of describing this template you compare with. The specification focuses on how childhood and adult relationships are affected, so our essay will focus on this. The question is likely to ask you either to explain the role of the internal working model on childhood/adult relationships or research into how early attachment affects childhood/adult relationships.
Describe/Outline Research (AO1) IWM
Research into early attachment and its effects has focused on Bowlby’s concept of an internal working model (IWM), which is closely linked with the Continuity Hypothesis. This sees a continuity between early attachment types reflected in later relationships in childhood and adulthood. Bowlby’s IWM is similar to the concept of a Schema or “template”. He proposed that infants had an innate tendency to form attachments with one particular caregiver, usually the mother, who was the most sensitive to their needs. Bowlby saw this attachment as unique, the first to develop, and the strongest of all, as it formed a model template of future relationships the child can expect from others, hence the continuity. This Internal working model creates consistency between early emotional experiences from the primary attachment figure and later relationships, as it teaches a child what relationships are like and how people behave within them. This also helped children form an opinion of themselves and shaped their attachment types. This experience is then used to predict future relationships in both intimate partners and peer relations.
Childhood Relationships AO1
Attachment theory predicts that children with an internal working model shaped around a secure attachment style will become more confident in their interactions with friends and people. Research evidence from numerous studies (Wippman (1979), Willie (1986) and Lieberman (1977) et al) all support this, with secure attachment styles being associated with closer friendships and greater emotional and social competence into adolescence. Hartup et al (1993) suggested this was due to securely attached children engaging in social interactions with other children more, hence they become popular.
Children with an IWM shaped around an insecure attachment type have, in contrast, been found to be more reliant on teachers for emotional support and interaction (Fleeson et al. 1986). Alpern et al. (1993) conducted a longitudinal study. They found that the attachment types of children at 18 months were the best predictors of problematic relationships at the age of 5 years, again showing consistency between early attachment and later childhood relationships.
Belsky et al. (1992) found that securely attached children aged 3-5 were more curious, competent, and self-confident than children not securely attached. They also got along better in their peer relationships with other children and were more likely to form close friendships. This shows a positive correlation between secure attachment and encouraging competency in peer relationships and personal development during childhood.
Adult Relationships AO1
Research evidence suggests adult relationships are also shaped by early attachment. Harlow’s research with Rhesus monkeys highlighted how poor attachment early on could translate into poorer parenting with monkeys themselves. Quinton et al (1984) found that mothers raised in institutional care (which negatively affected their attachment styles) were more likely to struggle as parents themselves. It is believed that this lack of an internal working model (due to no parental figure within institutions) provides no template to base their own parenting on for their children subsequently.
Hazan and Shaver (1987) investigated the effects of attachment on intimate adult relationships. A “love quiz” was placed in a local newspaper, and respondents were asked which of the three descriptions best described their feelings about romantic relationships—the descriptions related to being either securely attached, insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant for their current adult attachment style. Participants also completed a checklist regarding their childhood relationships with parents to assess the same attachment types when they were younger. Six hundred twenty responses from 205 men and 415 women were collected from people aged 14 to 82. The results found that attachment styles in adulthood closely matched what people reported during infancy, with 56% classified as secure, 25% as avoidant and 19% as resistant. Securely attached individuals had a positive Internal working model and conception of love and trust within relationships. Insecure avoidant respondents were doubtful about the existence or durability of love and claimed not to need partners to be happy. Insecure-resistant expressed the most self-doubt and was most vulnerable to loneliness, followed by insecure-avoidant.
This key study demonstrates that, for the most part, early influences on attachment persist into adult relationships.
Evaluation AO2
A significant weakness in the link between early attachment, the internal working model and later relationship experiences is that it is all based on correlational data. Due to this, we cannot say for sure that early attachment types and later love styles are based on a cause-and-effect relationship, as it may be that other variables in between are influencing this relationship. For example, individual differences and innate temperament may be intervening variables that affect how a parent responds to the child in forming their attachment style. The temperament hypothesis suggests that the quality of adult relationships is determined biologically from innate personality. This temperament may then be the basis for how later relationships are conducted.
Another weakness in Hazan and Shaver's study and others investigating the link between early experiences and later relationships is that many are based on retrospective data. Participants are asked to recall their lives from when they were children to determine their early attachment styles, and such recollections may be flawed and prone to bias based on their present experiences. Because of this, such data may be inaccurate and lack validity in determining how early attachments influence relationships. A strength, however, is that longitudinal studies, such as one by Simpson et al (2007), have found support for a link between early attachment classifications and how this influences later relationships. Infants assessed as securely attached at the age of one were rated as having higher social competence as children aged 16. They were also more expressive and emotionally attached to their partners, which supports the notion that early attachment type predicts later adult relationships.
Research into how early attachment influences later relationships is overly deterministic as it assumes early childhood attachment types are fixed into adulthood. Also, the assumption that those who are insecurely attached at the age of one will experience emotional unhappiness in relationships as adults is incorrect. Researchers have found many cases where people who were not securely attached as infants lead happy adult relationships later in life. Simpson et al (2007) concluded that the past does not unalterably determine a person's future, and many factors may intervene to influence later attachment.
Wood et al. (2003) offered an alternative view that undermined the role of attachments in having continuity in later life. He believed that the quality of the relationship is dependent on the attachment styles of both individuals. He proposed that insecurely attached people can have secure relationships if they find themselves with securely attached partners. This may, in turn, influence their attachment style to become safe, and this is something which hasn't been investigated: how one partner’s attachment type can affect the other.
A significant weakness of the Internal working model is that there is evidence from research studies to suggest it is not fully supported. Steele et al (1998) found only a small correlation of 0.17 between a secure attachment type in early childhood and into early adulthood. This is further supported by Zimmerman et al’s (2000) study, which found that a child’s attachment type at 12-18 months could not predict the quality of their later relationships. Nurture and psychological factors, such as life events, were better predictors for this, such as parents divorcing. The role of nurture influencing attachment types and further undermining the internal working model comes from Hamilton (1994), who found that securely attached children would later be diagnosed as insecurely attached if they experienced adverse life events prior.
