Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby's Theory

Question 1

Monotropic:

Answer 1

One particular attachment is different from all others and of central importance to the child’s development.

Question 2

Internal working models:

Answer 2

Mental representations that we all carry with is of our attachment to our primary caregiver.

Question 3

Critical Period:

Answer 3

Refers to the time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all. Bowlby extended the idea to humans, proposing that human infants have a sensitive period after which will be much more difficult to form an attachment.

Question 4

Why did Bowlby reject learning theory?

Answer 4

1. If it were true an infant who is one or two should take readily to whomever feeds them, not the case.
2. Proposed an evolutionary explanation, attachment was an innate system that gave a survival advantage.
3. Imprinting and attachment evolved because they ensure that young animals stay close to their caregivers and this protects them from hazards.

Question 5

Monotropic: *

Answer 5

1. Placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver, this is different and more important.
   Put forward 2 principles:
2. Law of continuity states that the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better quality their attachment.
3. Law of accumulated separation: the effects of every separation from the mother add up, safest dose is zero.

Question 6

Social releasers: *

Answer 6

1. Babies are born with a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours like smiling, cooing and gripping that encourage attention from adults.
2. Their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system.
3. Attachment is reciprocal and mother and baby have an innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in caregivers.

Question 7

Critical Period: *

Answer 7

1. He proposed that there is a critical period around 2 yaers when the infant attachment system is active.
2. Proposed that there is a critical period around 2 years when the infant attachment system is active.
3. More of a sensitive period, at this time they are maximally sensitive at 2, but if an attachment is not formed, they will find it much harder to form one later.

Question 8

Internal working model: *

Answer 8

1. Serves as a model for what relationships are like, powerful effect on the nature of the child’s future relationships.
2. A child’s whose first experience of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to form an expectation that all future relationships will be loving and reliable.
3. Impacts their ability to be a parent, people tend to base their parenting behaviour on their own experiences of being parented.

Question 9

E: Mixed evidence for monotropy

Answer 9

1. Bowlby suggested that babies formed one special attachment to their PCG. Only when this was established could a child form multiple attachments.
2. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that most of them attached to one person first, significant minority appeared able to form multiple at once,
3. It is unclear as to whether or not the first attachment is unique. Studies of attachment to mother and father tend to show the primary attachment figure is more important in predicting later behaviour (Suess et al 1992).
4. This could mean that attachment to the primary attachment figure is just stronger than other attachments, not necessarily that it is different in quality.

Question 10

E: Support for Social Releasers

Answer 10

1. Cute infant behaviours are intended to initiate social interaction and that it is important to the baby.
2. Brazleton et al. 1975 observed mothers and babies during their interactions and reporting interactional synchrony.
3. They extended the study from an observation to an experiment. Primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore social releasers.
4. They initially showed some distress but, when the attachment figures continued to ignore the baby some responded by curling up and lying motionless.
5. Children responded so strongly supports Bowlby’s ideas about the significance of infant social behaviour in eliciting caregiving.

Question 11

E: Support for internal working models

Answer 11

1. It is testable because it predicts that patterns of attachment will be passed on from one generation to another.
2. Bailey et al. 2007 tested 99 mothers with one year old babies on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers using a standard interview procedure.
3. They also assessed the attachment of the babies to the mothers by observation.
4. Mothers who reported poor attachment to their own mother were much more likely to have children classified as poor according to the observation.

Question 12

E: Monotropy is socially sensitive

Answer 12

1. Has major implications for the lifestyle choices mothers make when their children are young.
2. Law of accumulated separation states that having substantial time apart from a primary attachment figure risks a poor quality attachment that will disadvantage the child.
3. Feminists like Erica Burman (1994) pointed out that this places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for everything that goes wrong.
4. Pushes them to not to return to work.
5. Not Bowlby’s intention, boosting the status of mothers by emphasising the importance of their role.

Question 13

E: Temperament may be as important as attachment

Answer 13

1. Temperament is the child’s genetically influenced personality.
2. Temperament researchers suggest that some babies are more anxious than others and some more sociable than others as a result of their genetic makeup (Kagan 1982).
3. These temperamental differences explain later social behaviour rather than attachment experiences.
4. They also often accuse Bowlby of over-emphasising the importance of a child’s early experiences and the quality of their attachment.