Bowlby's monotropic theory

• Attachment is VICAM, what does VICAM stand for?

  • Vital for emotional health
  • Innate
  • Critical period (up to 2.5 years)
  • Adaptive
  • Monotropic - one special attachment formed with mother
• What are social releasers?

  • Set of innate cute behaviours that encourage attention from adults (e.g cooing)
• What is the critical period?

  • Time within an attachment must form, otherwise it wont form
  • From birth to 2.5 years
  • Sensitive period: attachment can form past 2.5 years but limits at 5
• What is monotropic?

  • One particular attachment is different from others and is most vital for child's development
  • More time spent with person = better outcomes for child
• What is internal working model?

  • Mental representations of what relationships should look like based on our relationship with primary attachment figure
  • Loving, reliable relationships in infancy expected to carry onto future relationships
  • Poor treatment in infancy leads to person expecting to be treated poorly in future relationships, or treat others poorly
• Give two studies that support monotropic theory, and one study that rejects monotropic theory

  • Bailey: mothers with poor attachment to their own primary attachment figures, more likely to have poorly attached infants
  • Tronick: support importance of social releasers to form attachment

  REJECT:

  • Schaffer and Emerson: suggested multiple attachments can be formed before specific attachment
• Give one strength and one limitation of monotropic theory

  • Need for monotropy appears to be universal
  • Importance of monotropy overemphasised