Hazan and Shaver

Hazan and Shaver (1987): The Love Quiz’ 
Procedure
The researchers asked people to volunteer to take part in the study. 
They were given 2 questionnaires, one to determine their early relationships with parents, the second their later, adult romantic attachments.
Findings
They found three basic types of childhood attachment and related these to later adult attachments:
Type of bond | Childhood experience with parent | Adult experience with partner | Divorce |
Secure | Close warm relationship with parents and between parents | Secure, stable and loving relationship with partner | 6% |
Avoidant | Mother was cold and rejecting  | Fear of intimacy, emotional highs and lows, jealousy | 12% |
Anxious ambivalent | Father was perceived as unfair  | Obsessive, jealous and emotional highs and lows | 10% |
Conclusion
Early attachments do affect later, romantic attachments.
Evaluation of the Love Quiz
As I said a poor piece of research because of the following reasons:
Self selecting sample:  the participants volunteered after reading an advert in the Rocky Mountain News.  This is a poor way of selecting participants since you are not getting a cross section of the public.  Using this sampling technique, for example, you are going to get people with an ‘axe to grind’ or with extremes of experience or opinion.
Questionnaire:  People tend not to answer truthfully, particularly on issues of relationships, instead wanting to make themselves look good.
Retrospective:  As we saw in memory our recollection of past events is not reliable, so it seems unlikely that people’s memory of their childhood experiences will be accurate
Cause and effect:  The researchers have shown a relationship between early attachments and later ones and are assuming that the childhood experience has caused the adult experience.  However, other factors could be involved.  Kagan (1984) suggested the temperament hypothesis.  Children with a pleasant disposition are more likely to form warm...