Attachment - Bowlbys Theory Flashcards
What did Bowlby believe about attachment?
That attachment is innate.
This means that both the baby and the mother have an urge to seek proximity and this is not learnt.
He argues that just like printing animals it is a way of keeping infants safe. Various social behaviours have also evolved to elicit caregiving such as crying and smiling.
Attachment is therefore a two-way process
What are the three components to Bowlbys theory of attachment?
– Internal working model.
– Monotropy.
– Social releasers and the critical period.
What is the internal working model?
This is where your first attachment forms a template for your adult relationships in the future.
In terms of the internal working model, what is the continuity hypothesis?
Your attachment types as a baby continues into adulthood.
What will a secure child develop in terms of an internal working model?
A secure child where developed a positive internal working model because it has received sensitive emotional care from its primary attachment figure.
What will an insecure avoidant child develop in terms of its internal working model?
They will develop an internal working model in which it sees itself as unworthy because its primary attachment figure has reacted negatively to it during the sensitive period for attachment formation.
What is a schema?
A cognitive framework or concept that helps organise an interpret information. Schemas can be useful because they allow us to take shortcuts in interpreting the vast amount of information that is available in our environment.
What is a Monotropy?
The idea that babies found one special attachment with their mother.
If the mother is not available, the infant could bond with another ever present adult or mother substitute.
What two principles explain that the more time spent with the mother the better?
The law of continuity.
The law of accumulated separation.
What is the law of continuity?
The more constant and predictable a child’s care is the better the attachment.
What is the law of accumulated separation?
The effects of every separation from mother and up and the safest dose is a zero dose.
What are social releasers?
A baby innate, cute behaviours that activate the adult attachment system And make the adult feel loved towards the baby.
According to Bowlby What is the critical period?
The idea that babies must form an attachment within the first 2.5 years. If they do not they will suffer irreversible damage. PIES.
Physically
Intellectually
Emotionally
Socially
What was the experiment on the Czech twins (Koluchova)?
Monozygotic twin boys were reared from age 18 months to 7 years in social isolation for a psychopathic stepmother and inadequate father. the children were fed but kept in the basement physically abused and socially isolated from their siblings on discovery. Their mental age level was three years but after treatment and approximately two years in a good foster home they had a remarkable progress and now appear about average for their age.
What was further work done by Ainsworth on Bowlbys theory of attachment?
Bowlby proposed attachment is determined by sensitivity.
He influenced Ainsworth whose observations of mothers lead her to suggest that the infants who seemed most strongly attached were the ones whose mothers were more responsive, more cooperative and more accessible than less closely attached infants.
