A-Level Psychology: Attachment — Institutionalisation, Culture and Later Relationships
Attachment questions in A-level Psychology increasingly ask what early attachment leads to: what happens to children who grow up without a stable carer, whether attachment types mean the same thing in every culture, and how far early experience shapes friendships, romantic relationships and parenting. This material covers those points as they appear in the revised specifications (for example AQA's A-level Psychology for first teaching from September 2025, which names the English and Romanian Adoptees project within the effects of institutionalisation).
The first group of questions deals with institutionalisation. You identify the ERA findings on adoption before and after about six months, recognise disinhibited attachment in a case description, interpret the ERA IQ figures at age 11 and sort valid from invalid evaluation points, including why adoption age was not randomly allocated. The flashcards add the Bucharest Early Intervention Project and physical underdevelopment.
Cultural variation is examined through Takahashi's Japanese sample, where no infants were classed as avoidant and many were too distressed to continue, and through Grossmann and Grossmann's German findings, both used to show why the Strange Situation may be an imposed etic.
The final questions focus on the influence of early attachment on later relationships: applying the internal working model to an adult who keeps partners at a distance, the findings and limitations of Hazan and Shaver's love quiz, the link between attachment type and bullying in childhood, intergenerational continuity with a genetic alternative explanation, and the difference between early attachment influencing and determining later relationships.
The material offers four formats. The 12-question quiz gives an explanation after every answer. The 16 flashcards cover the key studies and terms. The printable written work sets eight open questions, including an extended discussion, with ruled space for handwritten answers that are then checked. In the oral exam an examiner asks one question at a time, probes your evidence and gives precise feedback at the end.
It pairs naturally with the category's materials on attachment theories and types and on animal studies, so that together they cover the whole attachment topic, and it is useful for any essay that asks you to evaluate the long-term effects of early experience.
- Describe the effects of institutionalisation, including disinhibited attachment and intellectual disability
- Interpret and evaluate the English and Romanian Adoptees project and related research
- Explain cultural variations in attachment using Takahashi and Grossmann and Grossmann
- Explain why the Strange Situation may be an imposed etic
- Apply the internal working model to childhood and adult relationships
- Evaluate Hazan and Shaver's research and the claim that early attachment determines later relationships
Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Attachment topic of A-level Psychology specifications (for example AQA A-level Psychology 7182, specification for first teaching from September 2025, section 4.1.3: cultural variations, effects of institutionalisation including the English and Romanian Adoptees project, and the influence of early attachment on later relationships).
Sample question
In the English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) project, children who had spent their early lives in Romanian institutions were adopted into families in the UK and followed up over many years. Which findings are correct? Select all that apply.
- Children adopted before about 6 months of age generally showed normal emotional and cognitive development later.
- Children adopted after about 6 months were more likely to show disinhibited attachment.
- Age at adoption made no difference to later outcomes.
- Children adopted later tended to have lower average IQ scores at age 11.
See the answer
Children adopted before about 6 months of age generally showed normal emotional and cognitive development later., Children adopted after about 6 months were more likely to show disinhibited attachment., Children adopted later tended to have lower average IQ scores at age 11.
Rutter and colleagues followed 165 Romanian adoptees and a comparison group of UK adoptees. Those adopted before 6 months mostly developed normally; those adopted later showed more disinhibited attachment and, on average, lower IQ, suggesting a sensitive period in which damage from institutional care can be largely reversed.