Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

Question 1

Why does Bowlby’s theory think attachment between infants & caregivers form

Answer 1

Due to an instance that has evolved bc it increases chances of babies survival & parents passing on their genes
(It is therefore adaptive)

Question 2

Infants who are attached to their caregiver will stay close to them so that they

Answer 2

Are well protected and will survive

Question 3

Infants have what type of drive to become attached to an adult (Bowlby)

Answer 3

Innate

Question 4

Innate behaviours usually have a [… | …] in which they must occur or they never will (Bowlby)

Answer 4

Critical period

Question 5

What is the critical period for a child’s attachment to occur

Answer 5

2 years of age

Question 6

If infants don’t form an attachment during the first 2 years they…

Answer 6

Face difficulty forming attachments later on

Question 7

Bowlby proposed that attachment is determined by the caregivers […]

Answer 7

Sensitivity
E.g. infants who are most strongly attached tend to have a caregiver who is more responsive, co-operative & accessible

Question 8

What are social releasers

Answer 8

Behaviours that elicit care giving eg. Smiling & crying
- babies display these to encourage caregivers looking after that

Question 9

Why are social releasers important

Answer 9

To ensure that attachments develop between caregivers & their infants

Question 10

Bowlby argued that infants have one special emotional bond called

Answer 10

Their monotropic bond.
-> often but not always with the biological mother

Question 11

Infants also form what attachments

Answer 11

Secondary, which provide emotional safety and are vital for healthy psychological + social development

Question 12

What is the importance of ‘monotropy’

Answer 12

That the infant uses this relationship to form a mental view of relationships (an internal working model)

Question 13

Secure relationships = (…) working model

Answer 13

Positive
-> so future & current relationships e.g. with other & own future children will be positive & secure

Question 14

What does the continuity hypothesis propose

Answer 14

That individuals who are securely attached in infancy continue to be socially & emotionally competent p, as a secure childhood leads to a positive model

Question 15

AO3 (-) Schaffer and Emerson (1964) suggest that multiple attachments are more common in babies than monotropy. They found that…

Answer 15

by 18 months only 13% of the infants had only one person they were attached to.

Question 16

AO3 (-) Socially sensitive / blames mothers + ignores role of the father

Answer 16

Feminists e.g. Erica Burman = monotropy = socially sensitive.
- burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in their child’s life.
- puts pressure on mothers to stay at home and give up their careers.
- ignores the role of the father - he saw father’s role as primarily economic: outdated view, many families view both parents as equally responsible for childcare, and in many families the father is the primary caregiver.

Question 17

(-) AO3 Tizard and Hodges (1989) found that no such thing as a critical period?

Answer 17

children who had never formed any attachments by the age of four, and were then adopted, could still form attachments to their new adopted parents.
This goes against the idea of a critical period before two years of age during which an attachment must form or it never will.

Question 18

(+) more detailed explanation

Answer 18

Explains both how & why attachment forms, unlike learning theory

Question 19

AO3 (-) Impossible to test

Answer 19

Can’t test that attachment has persisted in the same form through our evolutionary history, therefore an unscientific theory

Question 20

What did Kegan disagree with Bowlby on
AO3 (-)

Answer 20

Caregiver sensitivity determining attachment
-> Kegan thought that innate characteristics & temperaments made it harder / easier for babies to form attachments