PSYA3 RELATIONSHIPS

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PSYA3RELATIONSHIPS

• EFFECTS OF EARLY EXPERIENCE AND CULTURE ON ADULT
  RELATIONSHIPS

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PRESENTATIONS

• CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS P.101-102 mon
• 2. CONTINUITY TO ADULTHOOD including research
  study, methods issues and ethics issues p.102-104
  mon
• LIMITATIONS OF CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS P.104-105
  tues
• ARRANGED MARRIAGES P.107-109 weds

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CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS

• Bowlby argued that early relationships affect
  adult relationships.
• The internal working model creates a veiw of self
  as
• Loveable or unloveable
• World as trustworthy/world as untrustworthy
• So young children develop an attachment style
  which influences later relationships by providing
  the child with a way of reacting to the world

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ATTACHMENT STYLE

• Ainsworth proposed 3 types of attachment
• What are they?
• Secure
• Insecure avoidant
• Insecure ambivalent
• Research has attempted to establish if these
  attachment styles are reflected in relationships
  with peers in childhood and adolescence

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RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEERS

• Most children grow up with parents, siblings,
  peers, relatives and friends
• Peers horizontal relationship
• (equal in knowledge and power. Good for
  practising social competence)
• Attachment theory would predict that attachment
  type would influence popularity with peers

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EVIDENCE FOR ATTACHMENT THEORY

• Sroufe and Waters found that children classified
  as secure go on to be more socially skilled than
  those classified as insecure

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LONGITUDINAL STUDY

• Lyons-Ruth etal 93 assessed attachment types at
  18 months and 5 years.
• Type B (avoidant) struggled the most to make
  friends

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NURSERY STUDY

• Hartup found that secure attachment types are
  more popular at nursery and engage in more social
  interactions with other children
• Insecure types are more reliant on teachers for
  interaction and social support
• So the claim that the interactions with parents
  enable children to be good at later relationships
  is substantiated

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SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

• This offers a slightly different explanation from
  attachment theory
• It suggests that children learn relationship
  skills from parents via observation and imitation
  (modelling)
• PARKE 88 families influence a childs later
  relationships as they guide and modify a childs
  behaviour and help him/her to develop social
  skills

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AUSTRALIAN STUDY

• Russel and Finnie 90 pre-schoolers with mothers
  were observed when the child was introduced to
  unfamiliar peers
• Children classed as popular had mothers who
  suggested strategies to help the child interact
  and ease them into the group
• Children classified as neglected had mothers who
  encouraged them to play with toys but did not
  help them interact

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EVIDENCE FOR SLT

• These studies support SLT because the model
  implies that it is mothers teaching which
  determines whether they develop social skills

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CONTINUITY AND ADULT RELATIONSHIPS

• As young people develop into adolescence, they
  spend less time with family and more time with
  peers
• Friendships involve more self-disclosure
• Bee proposed that teenagers use the peer group to
  make the transition to the adult world
• FAMILY PEER GROUP ADULT WORLD

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AUSTRALIAN STUDY

• Dunphy 63 carried out an observation at a high
  school in Sydney.
• Identified 2 important social groups
• The clique a same sex group of 4-6 young
  people, usually aged 12-14
• The crowd larger groups of mixed sexes. Made
  up of several cliques
• Thes groups allow the adolescent to try out
  relationship skills

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SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPSP.102

• Moore 97 measured attachment style of 100
  adolescents aged 14-15 using the adult attachment
  interview
• Then asked a close friend of the teenager to rate
  their behaviour for social acceptability
• Secure teenagers were less likely to engage in
  risky sexual activity i.e. unsafe sex BUT
• Those rated as secure were more likely to have
  had sex than those rated as insecure.
• Concluded that secure attachments can help
  adolescents to handle the transition to adult
  sexual relationships

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STUDY 1992FEENEY AND NOLLER P.103

• Examined the link between attitudes and
  relationship breakdown.
• Sample 193 students
• Those who were avoidant were more likely to split
  up. BUT
• Attachment style changed from casual to committed
• So attachment type is not completely fixed

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THE LOVE QUIZ P.103HAZAN AND SHAVER

• They investigated whether love in adulthood was
  directly related to attachment style in infancy
• Volunteers filled out a questionnaire in a local
  newspaper in North America.
• They chose one of 3 options to fit their notion
  of romantic relationships
• Then they made a checklist which described the
  relationship with their parents

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SAMPLES USED

• Hazan and Shaver used 2 samples
• 215 men and 415 women aged 14-82, randomly
  selected from newspaper responses
• 108 students of mean age 18
• FINDINGS a strong correlation between childhood
  and adult attachment
• Securely attached (type B) had relationships
  which lasted twice as long as insecurely attached

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METHODOLOGY ISSUES

• Self report measures are subject to demand
  characteristics and social desirability
• Also it is retrospective data which relies on
  memory
• Main, Kaplan and Cassidy have created an adult
  attachment interview which gets around these
  difficulties
• It is a socially sensitive area of research and
  volunteers were not de-briefed

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LIMITATIONS OF THE CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS

• Other evidence shows that early relationships
• are not always predictors of later ones.
• Life events also impact on adult security
• Zimmerman studied German children and found
  that child attachment type did not predict adult
  attachment type

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LIFE EVENTS

• Life events such as a parents death, divorce, or
  illness had much more influence on later security
• Hamilton found that children moved from secure to
  insecure when major life events took place in
  their lives
• But other possibilities also exist

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RUTTER

• Rutter identified people who had experienced poor
  relationships with their parents yet went on to
  lead successful lives with happy relationships

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METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN ATTACHMENT RESEARCH

• Demand characteristics people give answers which
  they perceive as correct
• Main and Kaplans interview overcomes this, by
  looking at HOW people talk about their past
• Interviewer looks to see if the person is
  consistent in what they say, and whether it is
  coherent
• So an adult who claims to be secure may
  actually be classified as insecure

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FEENEY AND NOLLER

• They point out that an individual may be secure
  in one relationship yet insecure in a later one
• So attachment styles may not be consistent

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CAUSE AND EFFECT

• Even if there is a link between early attachment
  and adult relationships, this does not establish
  cause and effect.
• A childs temperament will also influence early
  and adult relationships

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RELATEDNESS

• The way we relate to others is different from a
  relationship, which involves the interplay of 2
  peoples attachment styles

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TASK

• Complete summary questions 1-4 on p.106