Bowlby -Explanations

• What is attachment in this explanation?

  Attachment is adaptive and innate – Attachment is a

  behavioural system that has evolved because of its

  survival value.
• Detail on attachment being adaptive and innate:

  • Innate drive to be attached = long term benefits
  • Attachment / imprinting ensures protection and food
  • Behaviour is adaptive = if attachment increases, survival and reproductive chances increase
• Monotropic:

  • Places high value on a unique ‘monotropic’ relationship with mother-figure
  • This is more important than any other attachment
  • Doesn’t have to be biological mother
  • The more time spent with the primary care giver the better.
  • Law of continuity
  • Law of accumulated separation
  • This person acts as a secure base –child can explore the world and have a safe haven to return too.
• Monotropy - continuity + accumulated separation

  • Law of continuity = the more constant and predictable a child's care, the better the quality of their attachment
  • Law of accumulated separation= the effect of every separation from the mother add up and the safest dose is therefore a zero dose.
• Social releasers:

  • Babies are born with a set of innate Social releasers
  • These facilitate bonding = like smiling, cooing, crying and gripping that engage adult attention
  • This is so the adult will feed and protect them (help survival)
  • Reciprocal process- both mother and baby have an innate desire to become attached and the social releasers trigger the caregiver response
  • Links to Interactional Synchrony
• Critical period

  • Critical /sensitive period around 2 years old when the infant attachment system is active.
  • This is a period where a child is very sensitive
  • If no attachment is formed in this time period, a child will find it very difficult to form one later on.
• Internal working model - blueprint

  • A child develops an internal working model
  • This is a blueprint for future relationships starts as a relationship between caregiver and infant
  • Through this relationship - develop a model about future emotional relationships
  • Model as it because it acts as a model from what to expect in future relationships.
• Internal working model - what does the blueprint shows about future relationships?

  • A child that has poor treatment will tend to form further poor relationships as they expect such treatment from others / to treat others in that way.
  • Impacts on how the child will also parent. Parents
  • Base their parenting behaviour on their own experience of being parented.
  • This is why those from functional families go on to have functional families and vice versa
• AO3- lacks validity

  • Relationship with the primary attachment figure might be stronger than other attachments rather than different in quality
  • Other family members may develop attachments
  • These may have the same qualities, such as comfort and a secure base
  • This means that Bowlby may have been wrong to suggest that there is a unique quality to a child’s primary attachment figure
• AO3 strength - social releasers:

  • Brazelton et al (1975)- primary attachment figures told to ignore their babies’ social releasers
  • Babies (who were previously shown to be normally responsive) initially showed some distress
  • Eventually some curled up and laid motionless
  • Supports the idea that social releasers play an important role in attachment development
• AO3 strength- internal working model

  • Model predicts that patterns of attachment are passed from one generation to the next
  • Bailey etl al (2007)- 99 mothers - Those with poor attachment to their own parents were more likely to have one-year-olds who were poorly attached
  • This supports the idea of an internal working model (attachment is passed through families)
• Weakness - internal working model

  • there are other influences on social development which aren't taken into account
  • E.g. Genetically influenced personality
  • Suggests bowlby overemphasised the importance of this model in attachment
• Weakness - role of the father

  Bowlby underestimated the role of the father - saw him as primarily economic