Attachment: Bowlby's explanation of attachment

Question 1

Bowlby’s explanation of attachment

Answer 1

John Bowlby developed an explanation for attachment with four key ideas: evolution, monotropy, social releasers and the critical periods, and internal working model

Question 2

Evolution

Answer 2

Forming an attachment is innate and gives us a survival advantage
Attachment evolved because it ensures young animals stay close to their caregivers and this protects them from hazards

Question 3

Monotropy

Answer 3

Attachment to one person above all others is of central importance to development
The law of continuity: the more constant and predictable the care, the better quality attachment
The law of accumulated separation: the effects of separation from the mother add up and the safest ‘dose’, therefore, is a zero dose

Question 4

Social releasers and the critical period

Answer 4

Babies have a set of cute behaviours such as smiling which are designed to make caregivers attach to them during the critical period

Question 5

Brazelton et al (1975)

Answer 5

Observed mothers and babies during interactions, and asked mothers to ignore their social releasers - the babies initially showed some distress but when their caregivers continued to ignore them, they lay motionless

Question 6

Internal working model

Answer 6

We carry our understanding of attachment from childhood through to adulthood

Question 7

Bailey et al (2007)

Answer 7

Assessed 99 mothers with 1 year old babies on the quality of attachment to their own mothers and to their babies. It was found that the mothers who reported poor attachments to their own parents were more likely to have children classified as having poor attachments during observations

Question 8

Strengths of Bowlby’s explanation of attachment

Answer 8

Brazelton et al’s study provides support for social releasers
Bailey et al’s study provides support for an internal working model
Practical application - understanding how and when attachments are formed can help people become better parents

Question 9

Weaknesses of Bowlby’s explanation of attachment

Answer 9

Schaffer and Emerson found that a large number of babies could form multiple attachments at the same time as they formed their primary attachment, but Bowlby argued that you could only form multiple attachments after a primary attachment was formed
Erica Burman (1994) said that the law of accumulated separation places too much responsibility on the mother to take the blame for anything that goes wrong and pushes women into lifestyle choices such as not going back to work
It has been argued that the biological approach is too reductionist