Explanations of attachment-Bowlby's theory Flashcards
What did Bowlby base his theory off of?
He rejected learning theory as an explanation for attachment and instead looked at Lorenz’s and Harlow’s research for ideas to propose an evolutionary explanation.
What was Bowlby’s monotropic theory?
He said there was an important attachment to one main caregiver which was different from the others. He believed that the more time spent with the primary attachment figure the better.
What are social releasers?
Bowlby suggested that babies are born with a set of innate cute behaviours like smiling and gripping, which encourage attention to others. He called these social releasers as they helped to form an attachment.
What is the critical period?
Bowlby proposed that there is a critical period of around 2 years and after this children will find it much harder to form an attachment.
What was the internal working model?
Bowlby proposed that a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with the primary caregiver which is used as a model for future relationships. People base their parenting behaviour and families on this as well, explaining why people have similar families to when they were children.
What are the strengths of Bowlby’s theory of attachment?
There is support for social releasers as when parents didn’t respond, babies stopped moving, showing how important the interaction is between the baby and mother.
There is support for internal working models as bailey et al assessed 99 mothers with babies and found that mothers who had poor attachments to their own mothers had poor attachments to their own children.
What are the weaknesses of Bowlby’s theory of attachment?
There is mixed evidence for monotropy as it was found that multiple attachments could be formed before one main attachment.
Monotropy is a socially sensitive idea as the law of accumulated separation suggests that mothers returning to work will harm children.
Temperament may be as important as attachment in causing social behaviour and can explain behaviour rather than attachment.
