Evaluation

• Bailey et al assessed 99 mothers with babies (1 years old) on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers using a standard interview procedure. They also assessed the attachment of

  the babies to the mothers by observation. They found that the mothers who reported poor attachments to their own parents in the interviews were much more likely to have children classified as poor according to the observations.

  this shows how the internal working model is predicative of how people will parent which supports bowlbys theory.
• however using an interview methodology could be inaccurate as the participants may not be able to remember all these old childhood experiences or might want to twist the truth abit to make themselves look better. interviews have the issue of social desirability bias
• Monotropy is a controversial idea because it has major implications for the lifestyle choices mothers make when their children are young. Having substantial time apart from a primary attachment figure risks a poor-quality attachment that will disadvantage

  the child in a range of ways later. This places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything goes wrong in the rest of the child’s life.
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) that most babies did attach to one person first. However, they also found that a significant minority

  appeared able to form multiple attachments at the same time. this undermines Bowlby's theory of there being just one attachment figure with a special and unique bond