Bowlby's monotropy theory

• why did Bowlby reject the learning theory

  'were it true, an infant of a year or two should take readily to whomever feeds him and this is clearly not the case'
• what does Bowlby propose about attachment

  attachment is an innate, evolutionary process

  gives a survival advantage
• what is the basis of the monotropy theory

  infants have an innate drive to form a single, primary attachment with one caregiver( mother)

  is considered more important than any other attachment

  this bond acts as a template for future relationships
• what are the two principles Bowlby proposed

  law of continuity-more constant and predictable= best quality of attachment

  law of accumulated separation- effects of every separation form mother adds up (‘the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’)
• what are social releasers

  innate 'cute' behaviours that's purpose us to activate adult social interaction and so make an adult attach to the baby

  e.g. smiling
• what does Bowlby state as the critical period

  six months to 2 1/2 years
• what happens if no attachment is formed

  the babies would find it very hard to form attachments later in life
• what is the internal working model

  a mental representation of our relationship with our primary caregiver

  becomes a template for future relationships

  affects the childs later ability to a parent themselves
• strengths of Bowlbys monotropy theory

  evidence supporting social releasers (brazelton et al)

  support for internal working model (Bailey et al)

  can be used to understand attachments later in life
• limitations of Bowlby

  concept of monotropy lacks validity

  there are more factors that influence attachment
• what did Brazelton et al observe

  how babies trigger interactions with adults using social releasers

  instructed the babies primary attachment to ignore the babies social releasers

  finding= babies became distressed and some even curled ups and lay motionless
• what did Bailey et al find

  assessment relationships in 99 mothers and their one year old

  measured the mothers attachment with their own mothers

  also assessed attachment quality of the babies

  found mothers with poor attachments to mother= most likely to have poor attachment with baby