Bowlby's monotropic theory

• monotropy

  Bowlby places emphasis on the child's attachment to one particular caregiver.

  Believed that the child's attachment to one particular caregiver is different and more important than others.

  He put forward two principles - the law of continuity and the law of accumulated separation
• law of continuity

  stated that the more constant and predictable a child's care, the better quality of their attachment
• law of accumulated separation

  stated that the effects of every separation from the mother add up
• social releasers + the critical period

  Bowlby suggested that babies are born with an innate set of behaviours - social releasers. e.g. smiling, gripping, cooing

  Their purpose is to activate adult social interaction and so to make an adult attach to the baby.

  leads to the attachment system gradually building the relationship

  Bowlby proposed that there is a critical period of around 6 months and that a child's future attachments will be heard to form if they don't form on in the critical period. - viewed as more of a sensitive period
• internal working model

  Bowlby proposed that a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary attachment figure.

  If a child has a loving relationship as their first experience will form this expectation in all relationships

  If a child has poor treatment as their first experience, they will form poor relationships as they expect to be treated or treat people in a certain way.

  Affects the child's later ability to be a parent
• limitation - validity of monotropy

  the concept of monotropy lacks validity

  Schaffer + Emerson found that a significant minority of babies formed multiple attachments at the same time. Although, the first attachment does have a strong influence on later behaviour, it may mean that is just stronger and not different to other attachments.

  Means Bowlby may be incorrect that their is a unique quality of importance of the primary attachment.
• strength - support for social releasers

  clear evidence that cute baby behaviours are designed to elicit a response.

  Brazelton et al

  -> observed babies trigger interactions with adults using social releasers.

  -> researchers then instructed the babies' primary attachment figures to ignore their babies' social releasers.

  -> babies became increasing distressed.

  illustrates the role of social releasers in emotional development and suggests they are important in the process of attachment
• strength - support for internal working model

  idea of the internal working model predicts that patterns of attachment will be passed from one generation to the next.

  Bailey et al

  -> assessed the attachment relationships in 99 mother and their 1 year old babies.

  -> researchers measured the mother's attachment to their primary figures and the quality of attachment of the babies.

  -> found that mothers with poor attachment to their primary attachment figure were more likely to have poorly attached babies.

  Supports influence of internal working model
• counterpoint - internal working model

  there are other important influences on social development.

  e.g. genetic differences in anxiety and sociability affect social behaviour which could impact parenting ability.

  means Bowlby may have overstated importance of the internal working model