Early Attachment and Later Relationships

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about some research into how early attachment influences relationships formed in adult life, including with a romantic partner or as a parent, focusing in particular on: (i) the so-called ‘Love Quiz’ study (Hazan and Shaver 1987) which found that there was a correlation between the quality of attachment to parents in childhood and the quality of attachment to romantic partners in later life; (ii) the adult attachment interview, developed by George, Kaplan and Main in the 1990s; (iii) its findings on the correlation between a person’s early attachment to their parents and their later relationship, as a parent, with their own child; (iv) some criticisms of this research.

About the lecturer

Dr Emily Burdett is interested in how culture and cognition influence our understanding of the world around us. Her research has particularly explored the cognitive and social processes that influence the evolution of 'culture.' Her work uses an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and experimental approach to explore questions about how children and adults form concepts, how they learn and who they learn from, and when they innovate and become creative. These questions motivate current projects exploring the origin and transmission of culture, the cultural and cognitive underpinnings of religion and morality, and the motivations for learning and creativity.