Bowlby's theory of attachment Flashcards
What does monotropic mean?
A child has one particular attachment that is seen as different from all others
What is a primary attachment figure?
The main person the child spends time with
What is the law of continuity?
The more constant and predictable a child’s care, the stronger the attachment
What is the law of accumulated separation?
The effects of separation from the mother ‘add up’. The safest dose is supposedly to have no separation.
What is the inetrnal working model?
The mental representations we have which affect our future relationships as they carry our perceptions of what relationships should be like
What is the critical period according to Bowlby?
He states the critical period is up to 2 years old.
What are social releasers?
Behaviours that are used to activate the attachment system in both adult and child to promote an attachment to be formed
What are some examples of social releasers?
Smiling and cooing
What is a limitation of Bowlby’s theory?
There is low valilidity of monotropy
- Bowlby believes you can only form multiple attachments after forming 1 specific
- Schaffer and Emerson contradicted this
- They found that babies were able to form multiple attachments at the same time
- Questions whether the idea of montropy exists
What is a strength of Bowlby’s theory?
There is support for the internal working model
- It is testable as it predicts later behaviours
- Bailey et al tested 99 mothers and their one year olds
- Found mothers who had poor attachments to their own parents were more likely to have children who found iot hard to gain attachments
What is a strength of Bowlby’s theory?
Support for social releasers
- Brazelton found babies when ignored by caregivers showed distress and curled up motionless
- Shows that babies signals are significant to getting care
