ao3

• limitation -lacks validity

  -concept of monotropy lacks validity

  -Schaffer and Emerson found that, although most babies attach to one person first, most form multiple attachments at the same time. one with primary may be stronger than others rather than different in quality as bowlby believed.

  -other family members may have similar relationships (secure base behaviour)

  -bowlby may have been wrong to suggest that there is a unique quality to a child's primary attachment
• strength - social releasers

  -supporting evidence for the role of social releasers

  Brazelton instructed primary attachment figures to ignore their babies social releasers.

  previously responsive babies initially showed some distressed but eventually curled up and lay motionless

  -supports the idea that social releasers play an important role in attachment
• strength - internal working model

  support

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

  Bailey et al studied 99 mothers, those with poor attachment to their parents were more likely to have one-year olds who were poorly attached

  supports bowlbys idea of an internal working model of attachment as it is being passed through families
• limitation - internal working model - counterpoint

  probably other infuses on social development

  there is evidence genetically influenced personality is important in the development of social behaviour including later parenting styles

  could impact on parenting ability

  bowlby may have overstated the importance of the internal working model in social behaviour and parenting at the expense of of other factors
• limitation - feminist concerns

  law of accumulated separation and low of continuity imply that working mothers may damage their babies development

  however, bowlbys theory did draw attention to a mother's importance and had real world application

  this means that, although bowlbys theory has had important applications, it may have contributed to the oppression of women, particularly working women