Bowlby's Monotopic Theory

• Monotopic theory


  Bowlby rejected learning theory of attachment.

  attachment is an innate system which is a survival technique
• Bowlby used monotropy to describe his hypothesis that attchment to one primary caregiver is the most important in an infants development
• monotropy


  a child has one primary caregiver that is more important than the others

  Bowlbly said the primary caregiver was the mother/ mother-figure or primary attachment figure
• social releasers 


  Bowlby suggested that babies are born with innate cute behaviours like, smiling, cooing, and gripping which encourage attention from adults

  he called these social releasers because their purpose is to activate adult responses eg. care
• critical period


  Bowlby proposed that there is a critical period between 6 months and 2 years

  if an attachment is not made within this time, the child will have difficulty forming attachments later
• internal working model


  a child forms a mental representaion of their relationship with their primary attachment figure

  serves as a model for what relationships are like

  a child whose first expirence is of a loving relationship with a caregiver will tend to form an expectation that all relationships are as loving a reliable and bring these qualites to future relationships

  a child who has the opposite will tend to form poor relationships in which they give and expect from others

  affects later ability to parent
• bowlbys theory

  1. adaptive
  2. social releasers
  3. critical period
  4. monotropy
  5. internal working model
• acronym

  A - adaptive

  Snap - social releasers

  Chat - critical period

  Makes - monotropy

  Images - internal working model
• A03 - strength - support for social releasers

  • clear evidence that social releasers elicit interaction from caregivers
  • researcher observed babies trigger interactions with adults using social releasers
  • researchers then told the baby's primary attachment figure to ignore the baby's social releasers
  • babies became increasingly distressed and some eventuallt curled up and lay motionless
  • illustrates role of social releasers in emotional development and are important in the process of attachment
• A03 - limitation - validity challenged (1)

  • concept of monotropy lacks validity
  • Shaffer and Emerson found that although most babies did attach to one person at first, a minority formed multiple attachments at the same time.
  • although the first attchment appears to have a very strong influence on later behaviour, this may simply mean it is stronger, not necessarily different in quality from the child's other attachments
• A03 - limitaion - validity challenged (2)

  • eg attachments to other family members provide all the same key qualities - emotional support, safety etc
  • means bowlby may be wrong that there is a unique quality and importance to the child's primary attachment
• A03 - limitation - feminist concerns

  • Bowlby's theory implies that working mothers can harm their babies (by not being with them by working)
  • from a feminist perspective, Bowlby's ideas can be used to restrict mothers from returning to work when they want to
• A03 - limitation - feminist concerns - counter

  • on the other hand, before Bowlby's time people didn't think the mothers role was important so he suggested the opposite
  • his ideas have practical applications eg. the use of nursery nurses responsible for building an attachment with particular babies in nursery
  • so although bowlbys theory raises sensitive issues, it is outweighed by the benifits
• A03 - strength - support for IWM

  • IWM predicts that patterns of attahcment will be passed on from one generation to the next.
  • Bailet et al (2007) assesed attachment relationships in 99 mothers and their 1 year old babies.
  • researchers measured mothers attchment to their own primary attachment figures (parents)
  • found that mothers with poor attachment to parents were more likely to have poorly attached babies
  • supports idea of IWM
• A03 - strength - support for IWM - counter

  • other important influences on social development eg. psychologists beleive that genetic differences in anxiety and sociability affect social behaviour in both babies and adults. These differences could impact on their parenting abilty
  • means that Bowlby may have overstated the importance of the internal working model in social behaviour and parenting without including other factors
• adaptive


  attachments are beneficial for survival as it ensures a child is kept safe, warm and fed