explanation: Bowbly's theory Flashcards
what was bowblys monotropic theory?
He places emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver. He also believed that the child’s attachment to this caregiver is different and more important than others. The ‘mother’ is not necessarily their biological mother.
describe the internal working model
A child who experiences a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will form an expectation that all relationships are loving and reliable and they will bring these qualities to future relationships.
It serves as a model for what relationships are like.
However a child who’s experiences involved poor treatment will tend to form further poor relationships in which they expect such treatment from others
what is the critical period?
Bolwby argued that there is a critical period of around 2 years when the infant attachment system is active. If an attachment is not formed at this time, a child will find it much harder to form one later.
what did bowbly say about attachment being an adaptive quality?
Attachment is a vital adaptive quality that has evolved to increase the chance of survival. Babies are highly dependent on the parent as they require constant care. This means that the infant would benefit from a biological mechanism that could keep the parent close to them.
what are social releasers?
Babies are born with innate ‘cute’ behaviours such as smiling, cooing and gripping that encourage attention from adults.
Both mother and baby have an innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in the caregiver.
Evaluation: strength
Lorenz imprinting study can be used as supporting evidence
- Lorenz suggested that newborns imprint an image of the first moving thing they see within hours of being born which allows them to stick closely to this important source of protection and food. After carrying out this experiment on newly hatched geese, Lornez found that shortly after hatching, he was the first image the geese saw and they followed him everywhere, as they became imprinted.
Evaluation: strength
supporting study (Hazan and Shaver)
Hazan and Shaver used a questionnaire called the ‘The Love Quiz’ to examine current attachment experiences and attachment history.
620 people responded to the questionnaire which was published in the Rocky Mountain News. They found a positive correlation between attachment type and later love experiences.
how does Hazan and Shaver love quiz support Bowblys idea?
The results support Bolwby’s idea of an internal working model and suggest and suggest that our early childhood experiences affect our later adult relationships
Evaluation: weakness
research by rutter against the critical period
He carried out research on orphans who did not form an attachment during the critical period. Rutter found that when the children were adopted into US or UK families they were still able to form an attachment, but it took them longer to do so. He claims that the idea of a critical period was wrong and therefore it should be called a ‘sensitive period’.
Evaluation: limitation
contradictory evidence found by Schaffer and Emmerson
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.
This goes against what Bowlby claimed with forming only one attachment.
