Contribution tma05
TITLE
Culture and context factors in the building of internal working model
ABTRACT
This study examines the influence of culture and context in the lifespan development of relationships. More specifically, the researcher explores the impact of internal working model in adulthood. A qualitative analysis was conducted on a pre-edited filmed interview. Thematic analysis found culture and context to be influential factors and just as equally important as the internal working model.
INTRODUCTION Developmental psychology, in examining the way people's early vertical relationships may shape their horizontal relationships later in their lives, embraces a variety of theoretical perspectives. In recent years theorists have taken a rather probabilistic approach, underpinning the social constructionist perspective that people construct meanings through language and the ontology that people are meaning making and reflect on their experiences (Wood, Littleton, Oates, 2007). In doing so, psychologists have explained people's horizontal relationships later in their lives not only in terms of internal influences as previously described by psychologists Bowlby and Ainsworth (1989) but also in terms of external factors, such as context influences. Bowlby's attachment theory identifies three types of internal working models underpinning three basic infant attachment styles which were later translated empirically by Mary Ainsworth (1989) into infant attachment classifications. The attachment theory relies on the assumption that these internal working models are stable over time and enduring, hence each type of Ainsworth's infant attachment types can be associated with their related adult attachment styles (Wood, Littleton, Oates, 2007). Also it counts on the premise that having established a robust internal working model during early childhood, one is then bound to have 'healthy' relationships in adulthood (Wood, Littleton, Oates, 2007). In exploring how people describe
Culture and context factors in the building of internal working model
ABTRACT
This study examines the influence of culture and context in the lifespan development of relationships. More specifically, the researcher explores the impact of internal working model in adulthood. A qualitative analysis was conducted on a pre-edited filmed interview. Thematic analysis found culture and context to be influential factors and just as equally important as the internal working model.
INTRODUCTION Developmental psychology, in examining the way people's early vertical relationships may shape their horizontal relationships later in their lives, embraces a variety of theoretical perspectives. In recent years theorists have taken a rather probabilistic approach, underpinning the social constructionist perspective that people construct meanings through language and the ontology that people are meaning making and reflect on their experiences (Wood, Littleton, Oates, 2007). In doing so, psychologists have explained people's horizontal relationships later in their lives not only in terms of internal influences as previously described by psychologists Bowlby and Ainsworth (1989) but also in terms of external factors, such as context influences. Bowlby's attachment theory identifies three types of internal working models underpinning three basic infant attachment styles which were later translated empirically by Mary Ainsworth (1989) into infant attachment classifications. The attachment theory relies on the assumption that these internal working models are stable over time and enduring, hence each type of Ainsworth's infant attachment types can be associated with their related adult attachment styles (Wood, Littleton, Oates, 2007). Also it counts on the premise that having established a robust internal working model during early childhood, one is then bound to have 'healthy' relationships in adulthood (Wood, Littleton, Oates, 2007). In exploring how people describe