Bowlbys monotropic a03

Cards (11)

  • Social releasers
    Behaviours such as smiling or crying that encourage a response from the caregiver
  • Humans are innately programmed to respond to social releasers
  • When an infant cries
    Most people feel uncomfortable, which helps ensure someone will respond
  • Critical period

    A certain time period within which mothering must take place for children to form attachments
  • Bowlby saw mothering as useless for most children if delayed until after 12 months and useless for all children if delayed until after 2-3 years
  • Internal working model
    A cognitive framework used to understand the world, self and others, based on an infant's primary attachment
  • A child's first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver

    They will tend to form an expectation that all relationships are loving and reliable, and will bring these qualities to future relationships
  • A child's first relationship involves poor treatment
    They will tend to form further poor relationships
  • Internal working models affect the child's later ability to parent themselves, and are passed on through generations
  • Support for social releasers
    • Bracketon et al (1975) experiment where primary attachment figures ignored babies' social releasers, leading to distress and curling up motionless
  • Some children kept in isolation or severely deprived circumstances for the first several years of their lives still form strong attachments following adoption