Bowlby's theory

• Monotropy

  his theory is described as monotropic because he placed emphasis on a child's attachment to one particular caregiver and believed that this one attachment is different and more important than others. he called this person the mother but was clear that it didn't need to be the biological mother
• monotropy continued

  he believed that the more time spent with the primary attachment figure the better. he put two principles

  1. the law of continuity = the more constant and predictable a child's care, the better quality of their attachment
  2. the law of accumulate separation = the effects of every separation add up
• social releasers

  he suggested babies are born with innate cute behaviours that encourage attention from adults. their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system. he recognised the attachment was a reciprocal process. both mother and baby have an innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger the response in caregivers
• critical period

  around 2 years when the infant attachment system is active. he viewed this as more of a sensitive period. a child is sensitive at the age of 2 but if an attachment is not formed in this time a child will find it much harder to form one later on
• internal working model

  Bowlby proposed that a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver. it has a powerful effect on the nature of the child's future relationships. A child's whose first experience is a loving relationship will tend to form an expectation that all relationships are loving. it also affects the child's later ability to be a parent themselves.
• A03 - mixed evidence for monotropy

  • Schaffer and Emerson found that most babies did attach to one person at first however they found a significant minority appeared to be able to form multiple attachments at the same time
  • it is also unclear whether there is something unique about the first attachment
  • studies show that the mother is more important in predicting behaviour however this could mean that attachment to the primary care giver is just stronger than others
• A03 -support for social releasers

  • Brazelton observed mothers and babies during their interactions
  • primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore their babies social releasers
  • the babies initially showed some distress but when continued to be ignored the baby responded by curling up
  • this response supports the idea of social releasers
• A03 - support for internal working models

  • Bailey assessed 99 mothers with one year olds on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers using a standard interview procedure
  • it was found that the mothers who reported poor attachments to their own parents were much more likely to have children classified as poor in the observations
  • supports the idea that attachment is passed through families