Attachment- monotropic theory of attachment Flashcards
What is the key idea behind the monotropic theory of attachment
That infants have ONE primary attachment that is more important than all other secondary attachments
Monotropic attachment is …..
- An innate drive
- An adaptive trait
What is an innate drive when referring to monotropic attachment
Babies are born with instincts (e.g. to cry
when hungry) and parents possess similar instincts to respond to these ‘social releasers’.
What is an adaptive trait when referring to monotropic attachment
Attachment has evolutionary advantages as it increases likelihood of survival & ultimately reproduction and continuation of genes – because we will be kept safe and warm!
What are social releasers
Crying
Mutual gazing
Cuddling
babbling..
How does a mother have an instinct to attach
She is programmed instinctively to respond to her child’s social releasers
According to Bowlby why do babies use social releasers
To elicit caregiving
What do social releasers include and what do they encourage
characteristics (e.g. cute face) or behaviours (smiling, crying) which encourage caregiver to respond to baby’s needs.
What is a critical period/sensitive period
The first 3 years of a child’s life during which a monotropic attachment must develop to avoid negative effects. E.g developmental retardation
Previously seen as a CRITICAL PERIOD suggesting attachments COULD NOT happen after this time, but this was later changed to an ideal sensitive period after which attachment would be very difficult
What is an internal working model
This is an individual’s template for all future relationships based on their first monotropic attachment relationship.
Or internalised concept about how relationships work – impacts all future R/ships
What is the continuity hypothesis
Suggests that there is a clear link between early attachment and later emotional behaviour.
What are the four main predictions of monotropic theory of attachment
Attachments will form with those who respond to child’s signals
There will be a special attachment figure that is more important than others
Disruption of attachments will have developmental consequences
Type of attachments in infancy can predict emotional behaviour in adulthood.
Evaluation, evidence
- Lorenz
Lorenz found there was a critical period for geese to imprint on their caregiver (4-25 hours after hatching). This supports the idea that there may also be a critical period for human attachment.
Evaluation, evidence
- Harlow
P- there is evidence to support that food is not the most important factor in attachment, as suggested by Bowlby
E- Harlow found baby monkeys went to a cloth surrogate mother (with no food) rather than a wire mother (with food) when they were scared suggesting sensitivity not food is important in attachments.
L- This shows support for…
Evaluation, flawed evidence
However, some of the research support for Bowlby’s monotropic theory such as work by Lorenz and Harlow, comes from research with non-human animals.
It suffers from evolutionary discontinuity - we have to many qualitative differences
This is a flaw for the theory because humans are altricial but geese are precocial so this affects the attachment process because
Altricial animals (e.g. humans) are far more dependent on caregivers and as such likely to stay even closer to them. In addition, they are less well equipped to deal with threats to the attachment bond than precocial animals
This difference in the species therefore questions the extent to which we can use this animal research to support Bowlby’s Monotropic theory about human attachment relationships.
