Explanations of attachment: Bowbly's theory

• Evolutionary explanation- attachment is an innate system that gives an survival advantage
• Monotropy:

  • Monotripic- placed great emphasis on a child's attachment to one particular caregiver.
  • Called this person 'mother'- but not necessarily biological mother
  • Law of continuity- the more constant and predictable a child's care, the better quality of their attachment.
  • Law of accumulated separation- effects of separation from mother add up.
• Social releasers and critical period:

  • Innate 'cute' behaviours- smiling, cooing and gripping- social releasers as purpose is to activate adult social interaction and make adult attachment to baby.
  • Critical period- 6 months
  • Viewed it as a sensitive period- maximally sensitive ay 6 months and possibly extends to 2 or 2 1/2
• Internal working model:

  • Child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver.
  • Serves as a model for future relationships.
  • Also IWM affects how the child's later ability to be a parent themselves
• Limitation: validity of monotropy challenged

  • Concept of monotropy lacks validity.
  • Schaffer and Emerson- although babies did attach to one person, a significant minority formed multiple attachments.
  • Stronger not different in quality- e.g. other attachments to family members provide all the same key qualities
  • Means Bowlby may be incorrect that there is a unique quality and importance to the child's primary attachment.
• Strength: support for social releasers

  • Evidence supporting role of social releasers
  • Brazelton- observed babies trigger interactions with adults using social releasers.
  • Researchers then instructed primary caregiver to ignore babies' social releasers
  • Babies became increasingly distressed
  • Illustrates role of social releasers in emotional development and suggests they are important in the process of attachment development.
• Strength: support for IWM

  • Idea of iwm predicts patterns of attachment passed onto next generation
  • Bailey- assessed attachment relationships in 99 mothers and their one year old.
  • Researchers measured the mothers' attachment to their own primary caregiver.
  • Found that mother with poor attachment to own primary caregiver more likely to have poorly attached babies
  • Supports Bowbly's idea that mothers' ability to form attachments to their own babies influenced by their iwm.
• Counterpoint to support for iwm:

  • Probably 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.
  • Means that Bowlby may have overstated the importance of the iwm in social behaviour and parenting at the expense of other factors.