Bowlby

• Bowlby's Theory of Attachment (ASCMI)

  • Adaptive
  • Social releasers
  • Critical period
  • Monotropic
  • Internal Working Model
• Adaptive

  • Emotional bonds have an evolutionary function
  • Can be explained in terms of natural selection
  • Infants are innately programmed to form an attachment
• Social releasers

  • E.g. cooing, crying, smiling, gurgling, looking cute
  • Elicit a response from the caregiver drawing them nearer to the child in order to nurture and protect them
  • Aids the child's survival
• Critical period

  • An attachment must be formed before 2 1/2 years otherwise it will not be possible afterwards
  • If attachment is disrupted or broken during the critical period, then the child will suffer irreversible long-term social and emotional difficulties
• Monotropy

  • Claims an infant displays a strong innate tendency to form a special attachment to one particular adult female (usually the mother) which is unique from any other attachment they make
• Internal Working Model

  • This monotropic attachment creates an internal working model
  • Forms a template which all later relationships are based on
  • Leads to the continuity hypothesis - whatever your relationship is like with your parents in your infancy dictates your relationship with others in your adult years
• Eval - support for social releasers

  • Brazelton's 'Still Face' experiment - observed interactional synchrony. Mothers were instructed to ignore their babies signals (social releasers).
  • Babies initially showed distress and some lay curled up and motionless
  • Supports Bowlby's idea about the significance of an infant's social and emotional development in prompting a caregiving response and that they must be adaptive behaviours
• Eval - evidence to support IWM and the continuity hypothesis

  • Bailey (2007) - assessed 99 mothers of one year old babies on their attachment to their own mothers (using a standard interview)
  • Then measured babies attachment to their mothers
  • Found that mothers who reported poor quality attachments with their own mothers were much more likely to have their children classified as poor by the observation
  • Suggests early attachments do form a template for later attachments
• Eval - not a universal finding

  • If there are correlations between child and adult attachments, there are other ways to explain this e.g. the temperament hypothesis
  • Suggested that some children are simply more likeable, therefore making it easier for the adult to form a relationship with that child
  • Not due to the parents sensitivity but due to the child's temperament of the child as they are simply more appealing
  • Makes them appealing to other adults as they grow up
• Eval - shortcomings of concept of monotropy

  • Schaffer and Emerson - 27% joint first in early stages of attachment suggesting that infants do not need to develop one key monotropic relationship for attachment
• Eval - social sensitivity

  • Highlighting importance of primary caregiver places a burden on mothers - sets them up for blame if anything goes wrong and forces them into lifestyle choices
  • However, not intention - Bowlby wanted to boost the status of women by showing their importance
  • Before Bowlby's time, custody disputes settled in favour of the father
  • Also practical application e.g. the importance of key workers like nursery nurses