bowlby’s monotropic theory Flashcards
monotropy bowlby 5 ao1
monotropy - one particular attachment is different in quality
attachment is innate - evolved to increase the change of survival through proximity seeking behaviour
good quality care from social releasers - innate cute behaviours elicit care
internal working model - mental representation of the primary attachment relationship is a template for future relationship
critical period - around 6 months to 2 years
monotropy - research support
support for both social releasers and the internal working model. - form of a study which observed babies trigger interactions with adults using social releasers and when the primary attachment figure would ignore the baby, the baby would become distressed and eventually curl up and law motionless as a result - shows how social releasers play an important role in the emotional development of infants and also suggests that they are important in the process of attachment development - internal working model is from the study that assessed attachment relationships in 99 mothers and their one-year-old babies -measured the mothers’ attachment to their own primary attachment figure - found that the mothers with poor attachment to their own primary attachment figures were more likely to have poorly attached babies - supports the idea that the internal working model has the ability to affect later attachments. - support shows that there is further evidence to back Bowlby’s claims which allows for the theory to be more reliable.
monotropy - ethical
negative effects on the primary caregiver as a result of real-life application. This is due to the argument that to be a better caregiver, you must spend more time with the infant and the longer the time spent with the infant the better. This is through the belief that the caregiver is a basis for future relationships, which can be seen as blaming the caregiver for anything that goes wrong in the child’s life. This can place a terrible burden of responsibility on the primary caregiver as they may feel guilty about returning to work or having other responsibilities that cause them to be away from the infant. However, some may argue against this as it was not Bowlby’s intention to place such responsibility on the parents and rather saw himself as boosting the status of mothers by emphasising their important role in the infant’s life.
monotropy - application
led to development of intervention – aimed at teaching parents with poor IWM to understand needs of infant and their signals of distress - This is due to the parents often struggling to understand the needs of their infants as a result of their poor IWM before the therapy due to them not having experienced any representation to base their parenting on. This is a strength as it helps to prevent another generation of children having a poor internal working model.
monotropy - validity
concept of monotropy lacks validity. This is due to the findings from Schaffer and Emerson which saw that most babies did attach to one person at first, which is seen to have a particular strong influence on later behaviour. However, simply because the attachment is stronger doesn’t mean that it is any different in quality from the infant’s other attachments such as to other families which will provide the same key qualities such as emotional support. This shows that Bowlby’s theory holds the possibility that it could be incorrect about there being a unique quality and importance to the child’s primary attachment
monotropy - alternate explanation
learning theory - This provides a different explanation to why attachments form, which may be seen as more appropriate for parents as it places them in a less stressful position compared to their role in Bowlby’s theory.
