Life History project



Life History project

Introduction

Bowlby, an attachment theorist purports that attachment is a survival instinct in infancy, and once established it remains relatively fixed throughout life. Positive attachments created in vertical relationships, that is an “attachment to someone who has greater knowledge or social power - a typical example is a child's relationship with a parent or a teacher” (Rushton,1990) forms a secure foundation for which an infant can explore their environment and can return to if the environment becomes too challenging. Bowlby claims that a synchronicity develops between the infant and primary attachment figure and this is significant in the construction of internal working models (IWM) of the individual, the primary attachment figure and the relationship between the two (Rushton,1990)

The expectations of the behavior of others are contained within the IWM and consequently manipulate an individual's own behavior. In addition the IWM is extrapolated to new/unfamiliar people and situations; this corresponds with Meads developmental theory of primary and secondary socialization development (Rushton,1990).The paradigm put forward by Bowlby correlated to normative attachments, variations in IWM's and individual attachment types were later distinguished. Ainsworth et al (1978), upon performance of the 'Strange Situation' experiments, noted secure and insecure infant behavior. Rushton (1990) used the narratives from Adult Attachment interviews to describe secure and insecure styles.

A key component of the theory of attachment is security and the categories of infant types do, in certain conditions correlate with Adult attachments (Rushton,1990). This was found during the 'love quiz' questionnaires, which were studies of romantic relationships (Rushton,1990). It is worth noting however, that attachment types developed in infancy is not automatically predictive of the adult attachment type (Main & Goldwin 1984, cited by Wood et all 2007) as it is possible to transform from an insecure child type to a secure adult attachment, termed 'earned security' and vice versa (Rushton,1990)

Stability and instability can affect adult attachment in addition to security. Major life changes and events occurring during an individual's childhood are influential (Rushton,1990) Meta-analysis of attachment studies conducted by Van Ijzendoorn revealed other causations such as the primary attachment figure's own attachment type, which can be predictive of their behaviour towards the infant (Rushton,1990) which inextricably links to attachment, intergenerational, cultural and historical factors.

The researcher, within this study, seeks to answer the question “How do adults perceive that significant others in their lives (i.e. people who are or have been important to them) have affected their development”. The researcher's motives are that although there are many diverse methods and perspectives underpinning the above research, there are none that the researcher is aware of that explore the perspective of the insider in relation to their individual development, early attachment and experiences. This semi-structured interview with Assan provides the subjective data for the researcher to conduct a thematic analysis in order to interpret the intrinsic meanings within the social constructionist perspective.

Discussion

Method

Pre-existing data provided by The Open University was analysed by the researcher, a psychology student. The participant was given ethical consideration in accordance with the British ...