Attachment

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Attachment
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What is an attachment?

• An enduring emotional tie with a significant
  other e.g. a parent or lover.

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Why are early attachments important?

• There is evidence that the kind of attachments
  you form early in your life affect the kind of
  relationships you have later in your life.

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How do early attachments affect relationships?

• Children that form no attachments (privation) can
  grow up have significant problems with
  relationships due to poor social and language
  skills.
• Children who experience deprivation (because they
  are separated from an attachment figure) can grow
  up to suffer from problems such as depression
  (where they withdraw from others) or emotionless
  psychopathy (where they show a lack of
  consideration of others).
• Children who develop and maintain attachments are
  more likely to grow up to have productive
  relationships.

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Attachment Types

• Generally, having an attachment is better than
  having no attachment at all.
• However, there are different types of attachment.
  Research suggests that certain types of
  attachment lead to better relationships.

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There are three main types of attachment

• Type A Insecure Avoidant
• Type B Secure
• Type C Insecure Ambivalent

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What type of attachment are you?

• Type A Insecure Avoidant
• Type B Secure
• Type C Insecure Ambivalent

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Insecure Avoidant

• When I was younger
• I was quite independent.
• I didnt rely on my parents/carers that much.
• I didnt get that upset about strangers looking
  after me.
• My parents/carers were not that emotional.
• I didnt tend to tell my parents/carers how I
  felt.

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Secure

• When I was younger
• My parents/carers made me feel safe.
• I had a close relationship with my
  parents/carers.
• My parents/carers were sensitive to my needs.
• I trusted other people besides my parents/carers.
• My parents/carers seemed to understand where I
  was coming from.

10
Insecure Ambivalent

• When I was younger
• I was quite clingy.
• I was quite demanding.
• I was easily distressed.
• I was wary of people who were not that familiar
  to me.
• I used to play up my parents/carers.

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How common is each attachment type?
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Core Study In Attachment

• Hazen Shaver (1987)
• Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment
  process.

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Aim

• Hazen Shaver wanted to show that type of
  attachment that a person had in infancy had an
  effect on the type of romantic relationships they
  would form in the future.

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Hypothesis

• They predicted that people who had experienced
  secure attachments in childhood would have more
  secure romantic relationships that those who had
  experienced insecure attachments.

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Method

• They carried out a survey using a questionnaire.
• The questionnaire was printed as a love quiz in
  a local American newspaper.

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Method

• The questionnaire assessed attachment type in
  infancy using a checklist.
• The questionnaire also measured attitudes to
  peoples most important romantic relationship
  using multi-choice questions.

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Method

• 1200 replies to the love quiz questionnaire
  were sent in.
• Approximately half of these were analysed.

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Results
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56
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Results

• Anxious Avoidant
• feared intimacy in romantic relationships
• were jealous of romantic partners
• were more likely to report that they got along ok
  by themselves

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Results

• Secure
• reported friendly, happy romantic relationships
• were more accepting of their romantic partners
• had longer romantic relationships on average and
  were less likely to get divorced

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Results

• Insecure Ambivalent
• more likely to be obsessive in romantic
  relationship
• experienced extreme attraction but also extreme
  jealousy
• had shortest romantic relationships on average
  and were most likely to get divorced

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Conclusion

• There is an association between attachment type
  in infancy and the nature of romantic
  relationships in adult life.
• Hazen Shavers theory was that early
  relationships with carers provides a mental
  template that is then used for future
  relationships. This means securely attached
  children tend to go on to have more successful
  and fulfilling romantic relationships whereas
  insecure children tend not to.

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Evaluation

• The sample was mainly females and all were
  self-selecting respondentsso findings may not
  generalise to the rest of the population.
• Respondents were only asked about their most
  important romantic relationshipsso it may not
  be representative of others.
• Relationships were assessed through closed
  questionswhich may have been too simple for
  something so complex.
• Respondents were required to recall features of
  their attachment in childhoodbut because its
  retrospective it may be unreliable.
• The questions were quite personalso respondents
  may have been tempted to lie (especially as they
  were not traceable) leading to invalid results.