Attachment: Bowlby And Learning Theory

Question 1

Overview Of Bowlby’s Beliefs.

Answer 1

• Bowlby rejected learning theory as an explanation for human attachment.
• Inspired by the work of Lorenz and Harlow.
• Proposed an evolutionary explanation as he believed that attachment is an innate system that gives humans survival advantage.

Question 2

Monotropy.

Answer 2

• Great emphasis on child’s attachment to one caregiver.
• This attachment is different and more important than others, different quality from others.
• The more time the baby spends with the primary attachment figure the better for their development.
• The Law Of Continuity: The more constant and predictable a child’s care is, the better the quality of attachment.
• The Law Of Accumulated Separation: The effect of separation from primary attachment figure add up and therefore no separation is best.

Question 3

Social Releasers And The Critical Period.

Answer 3

• Babies are born with innate ‘cute’ behaviours. The purpose of social releasers is to activate the adult attachment system.
• The attachment system gradually builds relationships infants and caregiver.
• Bowlby proposed a sensitive period of 2 years. Essential for an infant to make attachment but not as critical if they don’t form an attachment but more harder to form one in later life.

Question 4

Internal Working Model.

Answer 4

• Children form mental representation of their relationships with their care giver.
• This has powerful effect of nature of future relationships.
• The internal working model affects the child later ability to be parents in the future.

Question 5

Define Monotropic.

Answer 5

• Mono means one and therefore indicates one attachment is different from others and important from others to child’s development.

Question 6

Define Social Releasers.

Answer 6

• A social behaviour or characteristics that causes a caregiver reaction.

Question 7

Define Primary Attachment Figure.

Answer 7

• The person who has formed the closest bond with a child due to the intensity of their relationship.

Question 8

Define Law Of Accumulated Separation.

Answer 8

• The effect of every separation from primary caregiver adds up.

Question 9

Define Law Of Continuity.

Answer 9

• The more constant and predictable a child’s care the better the quality of attachment.

Question 10

Define Internal Working Models.

Answer 10

• The mental representation to our caregiver.

- Has powerful effect as it influences the relationship of the individual in the future.

Question 11

Define Critical Period.

Answer 11

• The time within which an attachment must form or it will be critical for the child.

Question 12

Define Sensitive Period.

Answer 12

• Form in 2 years.

- Essential to make attachment as if not formed it will be harder to do so later.

Question 13

Strength: Evaluation - There Is Research For The Importance Of Social Releasers.

Answer 13

• Brazelton et al observed mothers and babies during their interactions, reporting the existence interactional synchrony.
• They then extended the study to an experiment.
• Primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore their baby signals.
• The babies initially showed some distress but when attachment figures continued to ignore the baby responded by curling up and being motionless.
• The fact that the babies responded so strongly supports Bowlby’s ideas about the significance of infant social behaviour in eliciting caregiver.

Question 14

Strength: Evaluation - There Is Evidence For Internal Working Model.

Answer 14

• Bailey et al assessed 99 mothers with 1 year old babies on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers using standard interview procedure.
• The researchers also assessed the attachment of the babies to the mothers by observation.
• It was found that the mothers who reported poor attachments to their own parents in the interviews were much more likely to have children classified as poor attachment to the observation.
• The evidence supports the internal working model of attachment being passed down though families as mothers who had poor attachment were more likely to have poor attachment with their child.

Question 15

Weakness: Evaluation - Monotropy Is A Social Sensitive Idea

Answer 15

• Monotropy is controversial idea because it has major implication for the lifestyle choices mothers make when their children are young.
• The law of accumulated separation states that having substantial time apart from a primary attachment figure risks poor quality attachment that will disadvantage the child in a range of ways later.
• Feminists argue this places a terrible responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in the rest of the child’s life.
• As it implies that mothers have to make particular lifestyles choices like not returning to work when child’s born in order to keep the quality of attachment high.

Question 16

Weakness: Evaluation - It May Be Temperamental Differences That Explain Later Social Behaviour Than Attachment Experiences.

Answer 16

• Temperament is the child’s genetically influenced personality.
• For example, some babies are more anxious than others and some babies are more social than others.
• The temperamental differences explain later social behaviour rather attachment experiences.
• Bowlby over emphasises the importance of a child’s early experiences and quality of their attachment.