Parent-Child Relationships

Parent-Child Relationships

1. AO1

   • Shaver et al.
     • Romantic love is a combination of 3 behavioural systems developed during infancy
     • Caregiving: knowledge about how to care for others which is learned by modelling the primary caregiver
     • Sexuality: determines our view on sex
     • Attachment: related to the internal working model which links to the continuity hypothesis
       • There is a link between early attachment type + later emotional behaviour
   • Hazen + Shaver
     • Found a link between early attachment type + adult relationships
     • Volunteers filled out 2 questionnaires to determine their early attachment types + their adult romantic attachments
     • Found that securely attached children were likely to be in a secure stable + loving relationships
     • Found that insecure-avoidant children would fear intimacy + have emotional highs + lows + be jealous
     • Found that insecure-resistant children would be obsessive, jealous + have emotional highs + lows

2. AO2

   • Hazen + Shaver
     • Methodological problems
     • Volunteer samples was used
       • Only certain types of people agree to participate
     • Sample is not representative of the entire population
     • Findings cannot be generalised + applied to real life
   • Fraley
     • Criticising evidence for the link between childhood attachment types + type of adult relationship
     • Conducted a meta-analysis + found a correlation between .10 to .50
     • Suggests that early attachment type does no affect later romantic relationships
     • However, low correlation could be because insecure-resistant attachment is more unstable
   • Deterministic
     • Research into the link between childhood and adult relationships is deterministic
     • It is assumed that early experiences have a fixed effect on later adult relationships
     • E.g. insecurely attached children will go on to be emotionally unsatisfied as an adult
     • However research has shown that insecurely attached children can experience a happy adult life
     • Shows that research is deterministic + ignored the influence of free will
   • Freeney + Noller
     • It is argued that relationship type can very between partners
     • They question the influence of childhood on later relationships
     • State that relationships style can vary depending on the partner
     • Same person could be securely attach with one partner + insecure with another
     • This questions the idea that parent-child relationships have a direction effect on relationship style in later life
   • Hamilton
     • Suggests that childhood has little influence + the environment/ experience have greater effects on influence adult relationships
     • Found that attachment type can change from secure to insecure when a major life event takes place (e.g. abuse of death)
     • Childhood influences ignored important factors, such as life events