Attachment Theory Implied That The Quality Of Infancy...

Attachment theory implied that the quality of infancy attachment patterns is consistent and continue to influence later development in relationship experiences. The first major article of Roisman et al. (2005) supported this statement, by investigating the correlation between participants’ infancy attachment and their behaviour in current romantic relationships. Data was drawn from a longitudinal cohort, where participants’ initial relationships were assessed in the infancy of 12 months by Strange Situations (Roisman et al, 2005). While most clients are Caucasians, some have mixed racial backgrounds such as African Americans. At the age of 20, 73 heterosexual couples who were in ongoing relationships of four months or longer were to†¦show more content†¦In other words, this supported Bowlby’s theory that adaptation to adult bonding was rooted from childhood attachments, hence affecting individuals’ engagement in later relationships (Partis, 2000). A notable strength of this study was that the method consisted of longitudinal dataset following individuals from birth to adulthood. As it was a direct measure of age-related changes, the results were not confounded by cohort differences, giving more concise result patterns. Nevertheless, one of the weaknesses was that the study was limited by the modest number of individuals in the sample (Roisman et al, 2005). Also, results may be biased as participants were drawn from low-risk samples, where they were quite stable in their romantic relationships at the time of the assessments. If a higher risk of cohort was to be examined, such as low-income families with low social supports, changes in attachment security might be more likely to be observed. To further support the hypothesis of infancy attachment styles being remained stable throughout a lifetime, Matas, Richard and Srouthe (1978) investigated the children’s functioning in terms of quality of play. It was evident that securely attached children demonstrated more adequate functioning, exhibiting greater ability in problem-solving (Matas et al., 1978). Moreover, Shaver and Brennan