A01

• What did Bowlby believe

  -attachment was adaptive

  -attachment was a two way process

  -also innate and a biological drive we are born with
• Attachments must form during..

  -a sensitive period

  -a child is most sensitive to attachment formation up to the age of 2

  -if an infant did not form an attachment during this time they would have difficult doing so later on
• What is an important mechanism of this process

  -the role of social releasers

  -responses such as cooing crying smiling which elicit a care giving response from parent to child

  -neotenic features (big eyes and baby like features) also do this
• Bowlby also stated that infants form a monotropic relationship. what is this?

  -One special deep relationship with mother
• From this relationship

  -an infant forms an internal working model.

  -this is a template of sort and it enables the child to understand what relationships involve and how to have them
• Bowlby stated that the relationship type you form as a child continues into adulthood

  -he called this the continuity hypothesis

  -the idea that being that a securely attached child will be emotionally and socially competent as an adult but a child with poor childhood relationships will experience difficulties in relationships
• Bowlby believed that if a child did not form an attachment in the first two years of life then they would...

  -become affectionless psychopaths