EFFECTS OF EARLY EXPERIENCE AND CULTURE ON ADULT RELATIONSHIPS
To read up on the effects of early experience and culture on adult relationships, refer to pages 136–144 of Eysenck’s A2 Level Psychology.
Ask yourself
· Does the parent–child relationship shape all future relationships?
· How do interactions with peers affect later relationships?
· How do relationships vary across cultures?
· What are the essential differences between arranged marriages and those based on choice? What problems are there in assessing whether one is more “successful” than the other?
What you need to know
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EARLY ATTACHMENT AND ADULT PASSIONATE LOVE / THE NATURE OF RELATIONSHIPS IN DIFFERENT CULTURES· The effect of early attachment and peer relationships on adult relationships / · Cross-cultural differences such as variations between individualistic (Western) and collectivist (Eastern) cultures
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EARLY ATTACHMENT AND ADULT PASSIONATE LOVE
You will hopefully recall the attachment types identified by Ainsworth and Bell’s Strange Situation, covered in the AS course, and Bowlby’s concept of the internal working model, which predicts that early attachment shapes later adult relationships. Securely attached people were trusting, confident, and had stable relationships; those who were anxious-resistantly attached were uncertain and insecure in their relationships; those who were avoidantly attached were detached and unresponsive in adult relationships. Those who were securely attached believed in true love whereas the insecure did not; the insecurely attached were more likely to divorce than the securely attached.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EARLY ATTACHMENT AND ADULT ROMANTIC LOVE
· Schwartz et al. (2006, see A2 Level Psychology page 137) provide an explanation for the inability of those with insecure attachment type to form successful adult relationships. They suggest that the emotional responses of lust, romantic love, and attachment are extremely similar to the emotional responses of anxiety and fear. They all involve activation of the sympathetic nervous system and so increase heart and breathing rates. The secure types would interpret the activation as excitement and anticipation, whereas the insecure types would interpret the activation as anxiety, stress, and fear.
· Freud’s theory of psychosexual development explains how early childhood experience can shape adult relationships. The phallic stage of psychosexual development is the key influence because in this stage boys experience the Oedipus complex and girls experience a complex that corresponds to their gender. According to Freud, young boys under 4 focus their libidinal desires mainly with the mother; boys desire their mother and see their father as a love rival. This conflict is resolved through identification with the father during the phallic stage (4–7 years), when the boy internalises the male gender role. Freud initially ignored female gender development, but when he did consider it he suggested the female conflict is based on penis envy, the girl’s desire for the father, and rivalry with the mother. The conflict is resolved through identification with the mother and internalisation of the female gender role. Freud suggests this affects later adult relationships because the parents will either provide a happy, loving, and nurturing model or an abusive, controlling, and unhappy model for future relationships as adults. The early relationship provides schemas (knowledge stored in memory) and scripts (ways to behave) of emotionally close relationships. Freud suggests that if a child lacked a parental model in the phallic stage, they would lack confidence in their sexual identity as an adult and so be uncomfortable in relationships with the opposite sex, and might avoid them altogether.
· Ehrensaft et al.’s (2003, see A2 Level Psychology page 138) 20-year longitudinal study found that children who witness interparental violence and experience excessive punishments are likely to use violent behaviour to resolve conflicts with close emotional partners in adulthood.
· Erikson (1968, 1980, see A2 Level Psychology page 138) suggested a stage theory of psychological development with the individual experiencing a life crisis at each stage. At adolescence the life crisis needing resolution is one of identity versus confusion. The crisis affects later adult relationships because resolution of it results in an integrated person with a strong personal and sexual identity, thus a lack of resolution could lead to inadequacy in adult relationships.
· Levinson (1978. 1986, see A2 Level Psychology page 138) suggests adolescence is a time of transition and exploration of personal possibilities including sexuality. “The Dream” will develop, which is the adolescent’s personal construct of where in life they are going, and hence the type of relationships this involves.
· Gould (1978, 1981, A2 Level Psychology page 138) sees adolescence as a time when childhood false assumptions need to be challenged if the person is going to have a successful adult life. The main false assumption is the child’s belief in their parents as omnipotent, and the parental world as the only correct one. The adolescent needs to achieve independence and accept differences to their childhood world, and so overcome a form of separation anxiety, to achieve successful adult relationships.
EVALUATION
· Gender bias. Freud, Erikson, Levinson, and Gould can be criticised because their research is androcentric, being based on males, male development, and the male world. Thus, we can question how well their explanations generalise to females.
· Cannot be tested. The psychodynamic concepts cannot be operationalised (i.e. measured; how do you measure penis envy or how much a life crisis has been resolved?) and so this means they cannot be tested. Consequently, Freud’s theory lacks empirical validity because the theory cannot be verified or falsified.
· Self-report criticisms. The research is based mainly on qualitative and retrospective data from questionnaires. Thus, it may be biased by researcher and participant effects, and because it is retrospective the participants’ recall may be inaccurate, thus there are a number of threats to validity.
· Strong scientific evidence. The Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (Collins & van Dulmen, 2005 , see A2 Level Psychology page 139) began in 1976. Data has been collected 23 times from birth to early adulthood. Methods used included observations, interviews, ratings from teachers and parents, written tests, school records, and public sources. Multiple measures were taken: parent and child characteristics, behaviours, interactions with significant others, and current environmental circumstances. The results showed a relationship between attachment and later social development. Securely attached infants had closer friendships as adolescents and were more emotionally attached to their romantic partners in early adulthood.
· Correlational evidence. The research is correlational not causal and so we can only link early childhood experiences to later adult relationships rather than establishing if the early childhood experience have causal effects on later adult relationships. Thus, conclusions are limited to associations only.
Peer interactions
In adolescence, powerful voluntary relationships form and rival, if not exceed, family relationships in terms of importance. Adolescent romantic relationships play a key part in development and have an enormous effect on well-being.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE ON PEER INTERACTIONS
· Zani (1993, see A2 Level Psychology page 139 ) reported that about 25% of 12-year-olds have had an important romantic relationship in the past year, and for 18-year-olds this went up to over 70%. There are negatives because mood swings and conflict can result but being in a relationship increases the sense of self-worth. It also raises the respect given to those in the relationship from their peers.
· A longitudinal study in Germany (Seiffge-Krenke & Lany, 2002) showed a causal link between the quality of romantic relationships in middle adolescence and commitment in other relationships in adulthood.
· Connelly et al. (2004) suggest peer networks and early pairings are reciprocally beneficial because the peer networks support early pairings and the pairings can expand the peer networks.
· Joyner and Campa (2005) found single-gender peer interaction in middle childhood is highly predictive of functioning successfully in later mixed-gender peer groups and also of having successful romantic relationships as a young adult. The middle childhood experiences give a strong sense of gender identity and this confidence enhances adult relationships.
EVALUATION
· Strong research evidence. The amount and variety of research on the peer group provides indisputable evidence of its influence on adult relationships.
· Researcher bias. Much research is vulnerable to researcher expectancy effects and bias in the interpretation of qualitative data, both of which may limit the truth, and so internal validity, of research.
· Self-report criticisms. Participant effects such as demand characteristics and social desirability may bias the research and so threaten validity.
· Advantages of peer interaction. The research evidence on the beneficial effects of the peer group, such as sense of belonging and self-confidence, leads to the conclusion that peer group integration is very important to psychological well-being and successful assimilation of adult roles, and so research has the potential for positive applications.
· Multi-perspective. The problem with any research on social factors such as peer interaction is that this tends to ignore the internal factors, such as personality and genetic predisposition, and so doesn’t account for individual differences. Thus, whilst it is important to recognise the importance of peer interactions, a multi-perspective is needed to fully understand the many factors that influence adult relationships.
· Correlational evidence. The research is correlational not causal and so we can only link peer interactions to later adult relationships rather than establishing if the peer interactions have causal effects on later adult relationships. Thus, conclusions are limited to associations only.
· Culture bias. Research on peer relationships is Western biased as kin relationships are more important in collectivist cultures and so the findings may have limited generalisability.
THE NATURE OF RELATIONSHIPS IN DIFFERENT CULTURES
Much of the cross-cultural research in social psychology is based on a difference outlined by Hofstede (1984) between individualistic and collectivist cultures. Western cultures are considered individualistic; most Eastern nations are considered to be collectivist. Individualistic nations emphasise self-interest and the interest of one’s immediate family, personal autonomy (making your own decisions), and individual initiative, achievement, and independence. Collectivist cultures emphasise loyalty to the group, interdependence, and the belief that group decisions are more important than individual ones.
In terms of relationships, the table below summarises some of the important differences between Western and Eastern cultures:
Friendship / People in individualistic cultures have more friends than do those in collectivist cultures, but these friendships tend to be more superficial.
Voluntary/involuntary relationships / In non-Western cultures, arranged marriages are common and are based on social status. In individualistic cultures, the individual chooses their own partner, usually on the basis of romantic love.
Permanent/impermanent relationships / Divorce is tolerated far more in some cultures than in others, but it is a fallacy that it is increasing in all societies; in some the rates are dropping substantially.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE
· Jankowiak and Fischer’s (1992, see A2 Level Psychology page 140) cross-cultural study of 166 different societies found that in over 86% of them there was a belief in romantic love and relationships, showing that this is not a Western construct but more of a universal belief.
· The perceived importance of emotional relationships comes from Endo, Heine, and Lehman’s (2000, see A2 Level Psychology page 140) study, which found that viewing one’s own important relationships as more positive than those of one’s peers is a feature of Japanese, Asian–Canadian, and European–Canadian participants.
· Kephart (1967, see A2 Level Psychology page 141) studied attitudes to love by asking participants “If a boy (girl) had all the other qualities you desired, would you marry this person if you were not in love with him (her)?”. The same question was asked in 10 countries, and the percentage of negative answers varies from 85.9% in the USA and 85.7% in Brazil, to 24.0% in India.
· Levine et al. (1995, see A2 Level Psychology page 141) tested participants using the same question as the above study in Thailand and Japan. The percentages of respondents in these two countries who said they would not marry someone they did not love were 33.8 and 62.6%, respectively, which were lower than that for the United States.
· In the USA, Asian–American adolescents are not as likely as other racial-ethnic groups to have had a romantic relationship in the last 18 months, compared to African–American, Hispanic, Native, and Caucasian groups (Carver, Joyner, & Udry, 2003).
· Giordano (2003) analysed data from the Toledo Adolescent Longitudinal Study and found that Caucasian youths experienced more awkwardness in romantic relationships than boys from other ethnic groups. However, all cultures reported some awkwardness and becoming more emotional when interacting with relationship partners.
· Murry et al. (2004, see A2 Level Psychology page 142) found the selection of romantic partners and the activities approved within the relationship are culture-dependent. In all the ethnic groups studied there was a close match between parent–adolescent relationship quality and adolescent romantic relationship quality. The higher levels of parental monitoring of their adolescent children correlated with the adolescents’ higher self-esteem and consistently predicted higher quality romantic relationships.
· Rothbaum et al. (2002, see A2 Level Psychology page 142) studied the family systems in US and Japanese samples, in particular focusing on the overly close enmeshed mother–child relationship, which the theory considers unhealthy. Traditionally, Japanese culture promotes an intensely close mother–child bond, which is predicted to negatively affect later relationships because the child is too emotionally dependent on the mother. However, healthy romantic and emotional attachments were found in the Japanese as adults.
EVALUATION OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WESTERN AND NON-WESTERN RELATIONSHIPS
· Comparisons are rather simplistic. The divide between collectivist and individualistic cultures is rather crude and the differences are not entirely clear-cut. For example, even in cultures in which marriages are arranged there is some degree of individual choice (they are not forced marriages), and in individualistic societies parents and social groups do have a strong (if more subtle) influence on people’s choice of marriage partner.