Attachment
What is an attachment?
An enduring emotional tie with a significant other
e.g. a parent or lover.
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.
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.
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.
There are three main types of
attachment:
• Type A:
Insecure Avoidant
• Type B:
Secure
• Type C:
Insecure Ambivalent
What type of attachment are you?
• Type A:
Insecure Avoidant
• Type B:
Secure
• Type C:
Insecure Ambivalent
Insecure Avoidant
When I was younger…
• I was quite independent.
• I didn’t rely on my parents/carers that much.
• I didn’t get that upset about strangers looking after
me.
• My parents/carers were not that emotional.
• I didn’t tend to tell my parents/carers how I felt.
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.
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.
How common is each attachment
type?
INSECURE
AVOIDANT
15%
70%
SECURE
INSECURE
AMBIVALENT
15%
Core Study In Attachment
Hazen & Shaver (1987)
“Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment
process.”
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.
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.
Method
• They carried out a survey
using a questionnaire.
• The questionnaire was
printed as a ‘love quiz’ in a
local American newspaper.
Method
• The questionnaire assessed
attachment type in infancy using
a checklist.
• The questionnaire also
measured attitudes to people’s
most important romantic
relationship using multi-choice
questions.
Method
• 1200 replies to the ‘love
quiz’ questionnaire were
sent in.
• Approximately half of these
were analysed.
Results
The distribution of different attachment types in
infancy.
19%
25%
56%
Avoidant
Secure
Ambivalent
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
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
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
Conclusion
There is an association between attachment type in infancy
and the nature of romantic relationships in adult life.
Hazen & Shaver’s 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.
Evaluation
• The sample was mainly females and all were self-selecting respondents…
so findings may not generalise to the rest of the population.
• Respondents were only asked about their most important romantic
relationships…
so it may not be representative of others.
• Relationships were assessed through closed questions…
which may have been too simple for something so complex.
• Respondents were required to recall features of their attachment in
childhood…
but because its retrospective it may be unreliable.
• The questions were quite personal…
so respondents may have been tempted to lie (especially as they were not
traceable) leading to invalid results.