Explanations: Bowlby Flashcards
What is meant by monotropy ?
Bowbly suggested that you can only have one significant attachment with one person that is different from the rest.
He called this person the ‘mother’ but it did not necessarily have to be the child’s biological mother.
Believed that the more time a child spent with their primary attachment figure, the better.
Put forward two laws to clarify this: law of continuity and accumulated separation.
Law of continuity.
Law of accumulated separation.
The law of continuity stated that the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment.
The law of accumulated separation stated that the effects of every separation from the mother add up and the safest dose is therefore zero.
Social releasers.
Cute behaviours such as smiling which encourage behaviour from adults and activate the innate tendency for the adult to care for the child.
Critical period.
The time in which an attachment can form. For example, up to 3 years.
Bowlby suggested that if an attachment is not formed in this time, it never will.
The child will be socially, emotionally and physically stunted if an attachment is not formed.
Internal working model.
Bowlby proposed the internal working model which serves as a model for what relationships are like - a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary attachment figure.
Give one strength of Bowlby’s monotropic theory.
Research support
Bailey et al studied 99 mothers with their 1 year old infants. Researchers also measured the mother’s attachments with their own primary attachment figures and the attachment quality of the babies. Found that mothers with poor attachment to their own primary attachment figures were more likely to have poorly attached babies.
Supports Bowlby’s idea that mother’s ability to form attachments with their own children is influenced by the internal working model.
Give 2 limitations of Bowlby’s monotropic theory.
- Theory may have placed burden on working mothers.
-The primary attachment figure is often the mother despite Bowlby not specifying.
-Working mothers are therefore put under pressure to delay going back to work so that their child can develop a secure attachment.
-Internal working model may also guilt mothers for being apart from their child as it shows that separation can be passed through families resulting in poor attachments.
-Theory is therefore socially sensitive.
- Monotropy may not be evident in all children.
-Schaffer and Emerson found that a significant amount of children formed multiple attachments at the same time of being attached to one person.
-Van Ijzendoorn and Kronenberg found that in collectivist cultures, babies can form multiple attachments straight away as the whole family is involved in raising the child.
-Therefore, monotropy is unlikely to be universal and so is a strictly limited explanation of cases of attachment.
