Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby's Theory Flashcards
What is Monotropy?
Bowlby’s theory is described as mono tropic because he placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one caregiver. He believed this attachment was different and more important. Bowlby called this person the mother. He believed that the longer a baby spent with the PAF the better.
What is the law of continuity in the monotropic theory?
The more consistent and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment.
What is the law of accumulated separation in monotropic theory?
The effects of every separation from the mother add up and the safest dose is zero dose.
What are social releasers?
Bowlby suggested that babies are born with a set of ‘cute’ behaviours that encourage attention from adults. Their purpose is to activate adult social interaction and make an adult attach to the baby. He recognised that attachment was reciprocal - both mother and baby are hard-wired to become attached
What is the critical period?
There is a period of 6 months where the infant attachment system is active, they are sensitive to attachment up until the age of two. If they don’t form an attachment in this time it is harder to form one later.
How is Bowlby’s theory an evolutionary theory?
Bowlby posits that attachment was an innate system that gives you a survival advantage. Attachment keeps young animals safe by ensuring they are close to adult caregivers.
What is the Internal Working Model?
Bowlby proposed that a child forms a mental representation of what all relationships should be like based off of their relationship with their PAF. All of their future relationships are predicated on this. This affects their ability to be parents themselves - they base their parenting style on their parents.
What is the limitation - Validity of Monotropy challenged?
Schaffer and Emerson found that although babies attached to one at first, 27% formed a joint initial attachment. And although the first attachment may be stronger, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is different in quality from others. This means he may be incorrect that there is a unique quality and importance to the PAF
What is the strength - Support for Social releasers?
There is evidence from Brazelton supporting SRs. He observed babies trigger interactions using SRs, the researchers then instructed the adults to ignore the SRs. Babies became increasingly distressed, and some eventually curled up and lay motionless. This illustrates the role of SRs in emotional development and suggests they are important for attachment development.
What is the strength - support for IWM.
Bailey (2007) assessed attachment relationships in 99 mothers and their 1 year old babies. The researchers measured mothers’ attachment to their own parents, and found that poor attachment was often passed down. This supports his idea that mothers’ ability form attachments is influenced by their IWM.
What is the counterpoint - support for IWM
There are some important influences on social development. Some believe that genetic differences in anxiety and sociability affect social behaviour in babies and adults. These could impact their parenting abilities also. This means that he may have overstated the importance of the IWM at the expense of other factors.
