Explanations of Attachment

• Bowlby's monotropic theory

  A=Adaptive (Babies born with certain evolutionary traits/characteristics that increase their chances of survival>)

  S=Social releasers (A babies cute proportions makes people want to protect them -> increases chance of survival.)

  C=Critical period (The time the baby has to form an attachment or else no attachment will occur, 2 years.)
• Bowlby's monotropic theory

  M=Monotropy (A infant has 1 important attachment called a primary attachment.)

  I=Internal working model (A blue print of how an infants future relationships will look like, influenced by relationship with primary attachment.)
• Bowlby's monotropic theory

  Strength)Support for the internal working model from Lorenz

  ->Lorenz geese looked for mates that looked like the thing they imprinted on. This supports the idea that an I.W.M. is influenced by your first attachment. + The idea of a critical period.

  
  

  Limitation)The idea of monotropy lacks validity as Schaffer and Emerson found that babies did at first only have 1 attachment but from 1 year onwards the baby had multiple attachments (secondary attachments) that provided the baby with the same things a primary attachment did (sensitive responsiveness, safe base etc).