Evaluation

• Research support - Lorenz

  -Lorenz supports Bowlby's concept of a critical period. He found out that Geese were born with an innate drive to attach within the first few hours after hatching. Geese instinctively imprint on first moving living figure they see during birth and their critical period is 12-17 hours.
• Research support - Harlow

  -Resus monkeys were deprived of contact comfort in infancy and shows maladaptive behaviours in adulthood - poor parenting and self isolation. Those who received contact comfort shows good healthy parenting.

  -Supports internal working model
• Socially sensitive

  -emphasises caregiver pressure. If the primary caregiver isn't there there then an attachment can't be formed which can lead to insecure or resistant attachments being formed and issues with relationships in later life.
• Challenging evidence:

  -Shaffer and Emmerson challenges the monotropy stage as they found that infants form multiple attachments. Lamb found that infants form different attachments for different purposes which also challenges Bowlby's monotropy stage.
• Continuity hypothesis is deterministic

  -Bowlby argues that the internal working model formed in infancy will continue to influence later behaviour and expectations in social relationships. For example, negative IWM can lead to poor parenting and avoidance of intimacy.

  -Underestimates free will.