Bowlby's theory

• According to Bowlby attachment behaviour has evolved because...

  it serves a key survival purpose as infants hwo are securely attached are more protected from harm. Parents must also be attached to their infants to ensure tehya re cared for and survive
• bowlby's theory of the critical period

  • Babies have an innate drive to be attached and the critical period for attachment is about 3-6 months. Social releasers such as smiling elicit a response from caregiver,making an attachment more likely to form. Those who don' t have opportunity to form attachment during this period seem to have difficulty forming atathcments latter
• monotropy and future attahcments

  • Bowlby also emphasised the idea of monotropy which is babies having one special attachment with their primary caregiver, -
  • through experiencing this relationships they form an internal working model which is a mental model in this case regarding explanations for future relationships. The continuity hypothesis states that infants with secure attachments will be secure in later life.
• One strength of bowlby’s monotropic theory is support for the continuity hypothesis. For example the minnesota parent child studystudied participants from infancy all the way to later adolescence, found a higher level of social competence in those who had secure atathcments earlier in life. Additionally hazar and shazam conducted a study here they gave participants a love quiz, with questions about their childhood atathcments and their present perceptions about love.They found there was a relationship between people’s early attachment types and their beliefs about love later in life. This shows support for the continuity hypothesis and the internal working model as it shows that peoples security in childhood can affect relationships in later life. However thi study was only done in one individualist country
• However, the limitation of Boelby’s monotropic theory is that there has been research against his idea of a critical period. Other researchers suggest that it should be referred to as more of a sensitive period as it is still possible for attachments to form outside of this window. One example of this is the case study of the Czech twins. They were isolated for many of the first years of their lives however they were then adopted at age 7 and went on to form secure attachments later on in life. This suggests a weakness to bowlby’s idea of a set critical period. 
• Whilst not Bowlby's intention, a limitation of Bowlby's monotropic theory is that it can be considered to have ethical implications and may place burden on working mothers. Due to the law of continuity and the idea of the critical period - means they shouldn't return to work.This is bad because it can be used to blame mothers for the breakdown of a child's future relationships and restrict their activities - such as returning to work when they want to, causing discrimination against those who have to send their children to daycare. Therefore, Bowlby's monotropic theory of attachment is socially sensitive and researchers should carefully consider the implications for mothers if such a theory is promoted. However this has had useful applicatons eg. giving the child a single keyworker to almost act as an alternative attahcment figure (bowlby's maternla deprivation theory) which helps the children greatly