Explanations for attachment: Bowlby's monotropic theory Flashcards
What type of explanation is Bowlby’s monotropic theory
-Evolutionary explanation - child’s attachment with their mother is innate
What is Bowlby’s monotropic theory?
-He placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one caregiver, and he believed that the child’s attachment to this caregiver is different and more important than others.
-He believed the more time a baby spent with the mother figure the better.
a)Did Bowlby’s “mother” figure have to be the mother and b) what is it now referred to ?
a)No it did no need to be the biological mother, or even a woman
b) primary attachment figute
what two laws did Bowlby create to explain why the more time a baby spent with the mother figure, the better?
-Law of continuity
-Law of accumulated separation
What was the law of continuity?
Stated that the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment
What was the law of accumulated separation?
-stated that the effects of every separation from the mother add up
-stated that the “the safest dose is 0”(Bowlby 1975)
What are social releases?
-babies born with innate cute behaviours that encourage attention: cooing and smiling
-babies and caregivers have innate predisposition to become attached and social releases trigger that response: therefore adults and children are hard-wired to become attached
What is the critical period of humans according to Bowlby?
-critical period of around 6 months
-suggested this may be a sensitive period and this extends to the age of 2
What was internal working model?
-Our mental representations of what future relationship should look and be like due to relationship with primary attachment figure.
-This then affects the child’s ability to parent later and will base parenting off their experiences.
What are the strengths for Bowlby’s monotropic theory?
Support for social releases: Brazelton et al. (1975) observed babies trigger reactions from adults so told primary caregivers to ignore the releases and babies became increasingly distressed and eventually curled up and lay motionless. This illustrates the role of social releasers in emotional development and suggests they are important in the process of attachment development.
Support for internal working model: predicts that patterns of attachment will be passed down through generations.Heidi Bailey etal. (2007) assessed attachment in 99 mothers and their one year old. They also assessed mothers relationship with their primary attachment figure and assessed attachment quality in the baby. Found that mothers with poor attachment with their parents also had poor attachment with their baby. This supports the idea that a mother’s ability to form attachments with their own babies is influenced by their internal working model.
However, there are other important influences on social development. e.g. some psychologists believe that genetic differences in anxiety and sociability affect social behaviour in both babies and adults. Kornienko also found that these may affect their parenting. This means that Bowbly may have exaggerated the influences of the internal model.
What are the weaknesses for Bowlby’s monotropic theory?
-validity of monotropy challenged: Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that although babies formed one specific attachment first to the primary caregiver they later formed multiple attachments. Although first attachment is important for later behaviour it may just be a stronger attachment and not unique like bowlby suggests as all attachments to family provide the same key qualities. This means that Bowlby’s claim that this attachment is more important and different may be wrong.
