Bowlby's Monotropic Theory

• Monotropy

  The infant trying to form an attachment to a primary caregiver to increase chances of survival
• Bowlby argues that attachments are evolutionary, and that infants have an innate drive to form attachments with mothers and stay in close proximity
• Social Releasers

  Attract attention, mothers are biologically programmed to find these behaviours cute/distressing e.g. smiling, crying
• Safe Base


  Attachment forms with mother so babies can go explore the environment and come back when needed
• Critical Period

  <30 months, a lack of monotropy can lead to permanent negative social, intellectual and emotional concequences
• Monotropic attachment forms a schema called an internal working model, being a blueprint for future relationships
• (+) A03: Practical Implications

  Bowlby's theory has had practical impacts in childcare, with physical contact and smaller ratio groups to give attention; and in healthcare with mothers handing babies as soon as they are birthed
• (-) A03: Determinism


  Internal Working Model is deterministic due to people liking the idea of having conscious control over actions, however this theory claims for it to be set in childhood
• (-) A03: Lack Temporal Validity


  Social change has caused a change from the 1940s in which fathers provide resources and mothers form monotropic attachments, more mothers work now, so fathers may take on role