Bowlby

Question 1

Whose research led to Bowlby thinking that a similar process of imprinting was happening in humans?

Answer 1

Lorenz

Question 2

Why does attachment form?

Answer 2

It is important that attachments are formed In two directions- parents must also be attached to their Infants in order to ensure that they are cared for and survive.

Question 3

What was suggested about the infants that were less attached?

Answer 3

Attachment behaviour evolved because it serves an important survival function -an infant who is not attached is less well protected.

Question 4

What is critical period?

Answer 4

A biologically determined period of time, during which certain characteristics can develop. Outside of this time window such development will not be possible.

Question 5

When is the critical period for attachment?

Answer 5

The critical period for attachment is around three to six months.

Question 6

What happens to the infants that don’t form an attachment during the critical period?

Answer 6

Infants who do not have the opportunity to form an attachment during this time seem to have difficulty forming attachments later on.

Question 7

What is a secure base?

Answer 7

The caregiver acts as a secure base from which the infant can explore the world and a safe haven that the infant can return to when threatened. Attachment therefore promotes independence not dependence.

Question 8

What influenced Bowlby to think that attachment is determined by sensitvity?

Answer 8

Bowlby proposed that attachment is determined by sensitivity. His views were influenced by Mary Ainsworth whose observations of mothers led 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.

Question 9

What is social releasers?

Answer 9

A social behaviour or characteristic that elicit caregiving and leads to attachment.

Question 10

Why are social releasers important?

Answer 10

Social releasers are important during this time to ensure that attachments develop from parent to infant. Bowlby suggested one important mechanism in this process are social releasers such as smiling and having a babyface, all of which elicit caregiving. These social releasers are innate mechanisms that explain how attachments to infants are formed.

Question 11

What is monotropy?

Answer 11

The idea that the one relationship that the infant has with his/ her primary attachment figure is of special significance in emotional development.

Question 12

Who is the primary attachment figure in most cases?

Answer 12

This individual is often the infant’s biological mother but not always.

Question 13

What does secondary attachments do?

Answer 13

Infants also form many secondary attachments that provide an important emotional safety net and are important for healthy psychological and social development. Infants have other secondary attachment figures that form a hierarchy of attachments.

Question 14

What is the internal working model?

Answer 14

A mental model of the world which enables individuals to predict and control their environment. In the case of attachment, the model relates to a person’s expectations about relationships.

Question 15

Consequence of attachment

Answer 15

In the short term it gives the child Insight into the caregiver’s behaviour and enables the child to influence the caregiver’s behaviour, so that a true partnership can be formed.

Question 16

Consequence of attachment

Answer 16

In the long term it acts as a template for all future relationships because it generates expectations about what intimate, loving relationships are like.

Question 17

Continuity hypothesis

Answer 17

The idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults.

Question 18

What does the continuity hypothesis suggest?

Answer 18

The continuity hypothesis proposes that individuals who are strongly attached in Infancy continue to socially and emotionally competent whereas infants who are not strongly attached have more social and emotional difficulties in childhood and adulthood. In other words, there is continuity from infancy to adulthood in terms of emotional type.

Question 19

Evaluation - Is attachment formed truly for survival?

Answer 19

Attachment is clearly important in emotional development, but it may be less critical for survival. Bowlby suggested that attachments develop when the infant is older than three months. This is very late as a mechanism to protect infants. In our distant ancestors it would have been vital for infants to become attached as soon as they are born.

Question 20

Evaluation - Is attachment adaptive?

Answer 20

The age of attachment is linked to features of a species life. Human infants don’t need to cling on - mothers can carry their babies. However, when human infants start crawling (from around six months) attachment is vital and that is when attachments develop in humans, supporting the view that it is adaptive.

Question 21

Evaluation - A sensitive period rather than “critical”

Answer 21

Psychologists have studied children who fail to form attachments during the important critical period between three and six months. According to Bowlby it should not be possible to form attachments beyond this period. Evidence from Rutter et al. shows that this is true to an extent. It appears less likely that attachments will form after this period but it is not impossible. For this reason researchers now prefer to use the term sensitive period to reflect the fact that the developmental window is one where children are maximally receptive to the formation of certain characteristics or behaviour, but nevertheless such developments can take place outside this window.

Question 22

Evaluation - Multiple attachment versus monotropy

Answer 22

Secondary attachments, in his theory, do contribute to social development but healthy development requires one central person ‘higher’ than all the others in a hierarchy. Research on infant-father attachment, for example, suggests a key role for fathers as secondary attachments and in social development (Grossmann and Grossmann, 1991). Prior and Glaser (2006) conclude, from a review of research, that the evidence still points to the hierarchical model as suggested by Bowlby’s concept of monotropy.

Question 23

Evaluation - Continuity hypothesis

Answer 23

According to Bowlby’s theory, one outcome of attachment is the effect it has on subsequent relationships. This has been tested by the Minnesota parent-child study (Sroufe et al, 2005). This study followed participants from infancy to late adolescence and found continuity between early attachment and later emotional/ social behaviour. Individuals who were classified as securely attached in infancy were highest rated for social competence later in childhood, were less isolated and more popular, and more empathetic. This supports the continuity hypothesis because there is a link between early and later attachments.

Question 24

Evaluation - An alternative explanation

Answer 24

The temperament hypothesis (Kagan, 1984) proposes that an infant’s innate emotional personality (called their ‘temperament) may explain attachment behaviour. Infants who have an ‘easy’ temperament are more likely to become strongly attached because it is easier to interact with them whereas those who are ‘difficult’ tend to be insecurely attached. There is research support for this Belsky and Rovine (1987) found that infants between one and three days old who had signs of behavioural instability (i.e. were more temperamentally ‘difficult) were later judged to be more likely to have developed an insecure attachment. Bowlby’s theory suggested that attachment type is due to the primary attachment, whereas Kagan’s view is that attachment can be explained in terms of infant behaviours. Belsky and Rovine propose that there is an interaction between the two, a suggestion supported by research that found mothers’ perceptions of their infant’s temperament influenced the mother’s responsiveness (Spangler, 1990).

Question 25

Evaluation - Harlow

Answer 25

One strength is that there is evidence to support the continuity hypothesis. For example, Harlow (1959) found that infant monkeys who formed a one-way attachment to an unresponsive wire mother became maladjusted adults who had significant difficulties in social and sexual relationships. The findings of Harlow (1959) support Bowlby’s continuity hypothesis as they demonstrate continuity between early attachment relationships and later emotional relationships.

Question 26

Evaluation - Schaffer and Emerson

Answer 26

One strength is that there is evidence of monotropy in human infants. For example, Schaffer & Emerson (1964) found that the infants they observed had a number of attachments but had one primary attachment figure. In most cases (65%), this was the infant’s mother, but not always. By seven months old, infants begin to show a distinctly different sort of protest when one person puts them down (separation anxiety) and show elated joy of the reunion and is most comforted by this person. They are sad to have formed a specific attachment to one person, primary attachment figure. Infants also display stranger anxiety, another sign of a specific attachment having formed. They found that the primary attachment figure was always the person that responded the most sensitively to the infant, just as Bowlby suggested. Schaffer & Emerson’s research therefore supports Bowlby’s view that infants are biased towards one individual, their primary attachment figure, despite having a number of different attachments.

Question 27

Evaluation - Rutter

Answer 27

One weakness is that some disagree with the concept of monotropy. For example, Rutter (1995) proposed the ‘Multiple Attachment Model’. This model suggests that there are no primary and secondary attachment figures, and instead that all attachment figures are of equal importance. Therefore, according to the ‘Multiple Attachment Model’, there is no bias towards one attachment figure as Bowlby suggested.

Question 28

Evaluation - Kagen

Answer 28

One weakness is that some psychologists have offered an alternative explanation for findings that support the continuity hypothesis. For example, Kagen (1984) proposed the temperament hypothesis, which suggests that infants are born with different temperaments. According to this hypothesis, an innately trusting and friendly temperament may be the prime factor in securing attachments in infancy and also the prime factor in securing successful adult relationships. This suggests that the continuities between early attachments and later relationships are a consequence of the temperament that an individual is born with. Continuities are therefore not due to early attachment relationships forming a template for later relationships as Bowlby suggested.

Question 29

Why is monotropy important?

Answer 29

The importance of monotropy is that an infant has one special relationship and forms a metal representation of this relationship called an internal working model.