Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

• Monotropy


  Child attaches primarily to one caregiver
• Monotropy


  • Attachment to primary caregiver is more important
  • Attachment is more constant and predictable
• Law of Accumulated Seperation

  Separation from mother adds up
• Social Releasers


  Innate behaviors like smiling and cooing that encourage attention from adults and activate the adult attachment system. This activates the mammalian attachment system
• Attachment is reciprocal - mother and baby have to have a predisposition to become attached
• Critical period


  The child is maximally sensitive to attachment formation up to age 2, after which it becomes more difficult. Bowlby believed that if attachment doesn’t form in the period, it never will. This is called maternal deprivation and can lead to criminality, mental retardation and affectionless psychopathy
• Internal Working Model (IWM)


  Mental representation of attachment (schema) with primary caregiver that serves as a template for future relationships. This is our perception of attachment with primary caregiver and as a result can explain attachment patterns across families
• Good IWM


  Good relationships
• Dysfunctional IWM


  Dysfunctional relationships
• Securely attached children are more likely to be independent, confident, sociable, and have good relationships with others as adults.
• Law of continuity 


  More constant and predictable care will lead to better attachment
• B.'s theory


  Theory about social releases
• Social releases

  • Eliciting caregiving
• Social releases


  • Brazleton observed mom's interactional synchrony with babies
  • Infants show distress, but some responded by curling up and laying motionless
• Social releases


  Braztelon observed mothers and infants and found international synchrony. He told mothers to ignore infants. Infants started to become distressed, and after a while some curlled up and laid motionles. This shows significance of social releasers elliciting caregiving
• Support for Internal Working Model 


  • Baily et al assessed 99 moms with 1 year old babies, using standard interview to assess quality of attachment, observed babies attachment behaviour, moms with poor attachment = baby has poor attachment
• What are the implications of B's theory
• B's theory has major implications for lifestyle choices of moms
• Socially sensitive as it puts pressure on life style choices of mothers.

  Burman suggested B's theory means moms are responsible for any development abnormalities in child. Montoropy therefore stigmatizes bad mothers and puts pressure on them to take responsibility
• B's theory is era-dependent, lacks temporal validity. More moms are choosing to go back to work shortly after birth- does this make them a bad mother?
• Temperament


  • Kagan suggested temperamental differences in infants are a better explanation of later behaviour, not just attachment. This might meal that temperament is as important as attachment and that the Internal Working Model isn’t the main factor in determining relationships
• Temperament might be as important as attachment