Bowlbys monotrophic theory of attachment

• Focuses on the attachment to 1 primary caregiver, this is the most important attachment, attachment is and innate, biological aid to survive.

  Law of continuity- the more constant and predictable a child’s care is, the better the quality of attachment.

  Law of accumulated separation- the effects of every separation from the mother add up, ‘safest dose is zero’
• Social releases- babies are born with cute behaviours (innate), these encourage interactions from adults and this aids attachment to baby 

  Sensitive period- (not critical) around 6 months, can extend to 2 years, is when a child’s attachment system is active, if an attachment isn’t formed in this time a child will find it much harder to make one later (not impossible)
• Internal working model- bowlby said a child forms a mental representation(schema) of their relationship with pcg, this serves as a model for what relationships are like. E.g. baby with loving and reliable caregiver will assume also relationships are like that and will bring these qualities to future relationships. 

    -the internal working model affects the child’s later ability to parent
• strength

  support for the internal working model

  Bailey assessed attachment in 99 mothers to their one year olds and he measured the mothers attachment to their own mothers.

  Poor attachment to own mother showed poor attachment quality to babies

  supports idea that future attachments are linked to internal working model

  However, there are probably other important influences on social development, like genetic differences in anxiety and sociability and these differences could also impact parenting ability so bowlby may have overstated the importance of the internal working model.
• Strength

  support for social releasers

  Brazelton observed that babies trigger interactions with adults, using social releasers.

  Adults were told to ignore social releases and babies became increasingly distressed.

  This shows they are important in the process of attachment development
• limitation

  validity of the monotrophy is challenged

  schaffer and Emerson found that although most babies attached to one person, a significant minority formed multiple attachments at the same time.

  Although the first attachment does appear to have a strong influence on later attachment, this may just mean it’s stronger and not different in quality to the other child’s attachment.

  bowlby may be incorrect that there is a unique quality and importance to the child’s primary attachment