Supporting Evidence for Bowlby's Theory
Lorenz's imprinting study provides compelling evidence that attachment is truly innate rather than learned. When newly hatched geese immediately followed Lorenz everywhere after seeing him first, it showed attachment happens too quickly to be a learned behaviour.
The internal working model gets strong support from Hazen and Shaver's famous "love quiz" research. They found clear correlations between childhood attachment styles and adult romantic relationships - secure children typically became adults with loving, long-lasting partnerships.
Key Point: This continuity from childhood to adulthood suggests our early relationships really do create templates for future ones, just as Bowlby predicted.
However, Howes et al's research challenges this template idea by showing children can have completely different attachment styles with parents versus peers. This suggests our relationship patterns might be more flexible than Bowlby originally thought.
