bowlbys explanation of attachment Flashcards
What did Bowlby argue about infants and their parents?
Bowlby argued that infants are born with an innate tendency to form attachments with their parents to increase chances of survival.
What are social releasers according to Bowlby?
According to Bowlby, infants possess inborn social releasers, which unlock a biological tendency in adults to care for them. Examples include ‘baby face’ features or smiling and cooing.
What is the critical period according to Bowlby?
Babies must form an attachment during the critical period which is between three and six months of age. However, Bowlby later acknowledged that infants could form an attachment after this period (up to three years of age); however, he maintained that the successful formation of an attachment would be increasingly difficult after this initial period.
What happens if an attachment does not form during the critical period?
Bowlby said that if an attachment didn’t form during this time frame then the child would be damaged for life – socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically.
What is monotropy according to Bowlby?
infants form one special attachment which Bowlby called monotropy. Through the monotropic attachment, the infant forms an internal working model which is a mental template for future relationship expectations.
What happens if the child has a negative relationship with their caregiver?
If there’s a healthy attachment with the caregiver then the infant will develop strong relationships later in life. However, if the child has a negative relationship with their caregiver, they will have difficult social and romantic relationships.
What is a strength of Bowlby’s theory?
A strength of Bowlby’s theory comes from research by Hazan and Shaver (1987). They used a self-report questionnaire called ‘The Love Quiz’ to assess the internal working model. They found a positive correlation between early attachment types and later adult relationships.
What did Sroufe et al. (2005) find in their study?
roufe et al. (2005) also provide evidence for this in their Minnesota parent-child study, showing the outcome of early attachment type being carried forward and projected onto expectations of subsequent relationships.
What does Bowlby’s theory suggest about attachments?
Bowlby’s theory suggests that attachments are an innate mechanism to aid survival, therefore supporting a nature view. His notion of an internal working model suggests that adult relationships are, to some extent, determined by an innate mechanism shaped by our nurturing early relationship experiences.
What is the alternative explanation for attachment proposed by Kagan (1984)?
There is an alternative explanation for attachment. Kagan (1984) proposed the temperament hypothesis which suggests that a child’s genetically inherited personality traits (temperament) have a role to play in forming an attachment with a caregiver.
