Bowlbys monotopic theory Flashcards
What was Bowlbys evolutionary explanation for attachment (3)
*Bowlby proposed that attachment was an innate system that gave a survival advantage.
*Imprinting and attachment evolved them from hazards.
*Millions of years ago this might have been wild animals
What is monotropy
*A great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver that is more important than other attachments (usually monotropy is with the mother)
*Bowlby believed that the more time a baby spent with this figure the better
What were the two principles of monotropy
-The law of continuity(the more constant a child’s care is the better the quality of their attachment)
-The law of accumulated separation(The effects of every separation from the mother add up)
What are the Internal working models (3)
-The mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver.
-They are important in affecting our future relationships
-because they carry out perception of what relationships are like
What are the 5 key terms in this part of attachment
Monotropy
Internal working model
Critical period
Social releasers
Adaptive
What is the Critical period
*This refers to the time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all
*The critical period for humans is 3 months to 2 years
What happens if the critical period is not met
-A lack of monotropy results in permanent negative social,intellectual and emotional consequences for the infant
-Bowlby suggests stronger attachments in caregiver-infant relationships will form if care is consistent, and weaker attachments will form with frequent/long separations.
What are Social releasers (4)
*A set of innate behaviours like smiling, cooing and gripping that encourage attention from adults
-Social releasers can be both Physical and Behavioural
-Physical- The typical baby face features and body proportions
-Behavioural- e.g. crying, cooing (like ooh and ahh)
What does it mean by adaptive
Adaptations that gave our species an advantage making us more likely to survive
-This is because if an infant has an attachment to a caregiver, they are kept safe, given food and kept warm
Monotropy is a socially sensitive idea Weakness
-One weakness of Bowlby’s learning theory is that monotropy is a socially sensitive idea.
-Monotropy is a controversial idea because it has major implications for the lifestyle choices mothers make when their children are young.
-The law of accumulated separation states that having substantial time apart from a primary attachment figures risks a poor quality attachment that will disadvantage the child in a range of ways later
-Feminists’ like Erica Burman (1994) have pointed out that this places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in the rest of the child’s life. It also pushes mothers into particular lifestyle choices like not returning to work when a child is born. This was not Bowlby’s intention which is why it is a weakness
There is mixed evidence for monotropy
Bowlby believed that babies generally formed one attachment to their primary caregiver, and that this attachment was special, in some way different from later attachments. Only after this attachment was established could a child form multiple attachments. This is not supported by Schaffer and Emerson (1964). They found that most babies did attach to one person first.However they also found that a significant minority appeared able to form multiple attachments at the same time .It is also unclear whether there is something unique about the first attachment.Studies of attachment to mother and father tend to show that attachment to the mother is more important in predicting later behaviours(suess et al).However this could simply mean that attachment to the primary attachment figure is just stronger than other attachments, not necessarily that it is different in quality
Support for social releasers
There is clear evidence that shows that cute infant behaviours are intended to initiate social interaction and that doing so is important to the baby. Brazleton et al (1975) observed mothers and babies during their interactions,reporting the existence of interaction synchrony.They then extended the study from an observation to an experiment. Primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore their babies signals-in bowlby’s terms to ignore their social releasers. The babies initially showed some distress but., when the attachment figures continued to ignore the baby, some responded by curling up and lying motionless The fact that children responded so strongly supports bowlby’s ideas about the significance of infant social behaviours in eliciting caregiving
