bowlby's theory of attachment Flashcards
(16 cards)
what are the key components of bowlby’s theory?
Adaptive
Social releasers
Critical period
Monotropy
Internal working model
**(ASCMI) **
why do attachments form for bowlby?
SURVIVAL FUNCTION - a baby who is not attached is less well protected
- warm, fed, safe
- ADAPTIVE - attachment is an advantage - it increases survival
attachments need to form in both directions- parents must also become attached to their babies
how do bowlby’s attachments form?
babies get attached to people who are most sensitive to their needs
- babies have SOCIAL RELEASERS which elicit caregiving (they MAKE you want to look after them with cute faces and cooing)
these behaviours and our responses to them have been naturally selected because they lead to survival
when do attachments form for bowlby?
they form during the CRITICAL PERIOD (approx 6 months but can be up to 2.5-3 yrs)
- if a baby misses this critical period, they may struggle to form attachments later
if no attachment is formed - they may become stunted socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically
- 44 juvenile thieves
what is monotropy?
the leaning towards one person
- babies form one special emotional bond to a primary attachment figure - most often the bio mother
the person who responds to their needs and signals and not the person who they spend the most time with
- babies can also form secondary attachments that provide them with an important emotional safety net
what is the internal working model?
the importance of monotropy is that this one special relationship forms the basis for a template about what relationships are like called the IMW and there are 2 consequences for this:
- short term - child gets insight into caregiver’s behaviour/child can influence their caregiver’s behaviour
- long term - acts as a template for all future relationships due to expectations about what relationships are like
what is the continuity hypothesis?
it proposes that individuals who are strongly attached in infancy go onto be socially/emotionally competent
- babies who are not, end up experiencing social and emotional difficulties i.e. there is continuity from infancy to adulthood in terms of emotional type
what did Lorenz find?
showed that young ducks and geese could be imprinted on by almost anything in their first few days of life e.g. humans, coloured balls
what did Harlow find?
are babies mostly attached to their feeders?
- harlow took a young monkey in a room with wire monkey mothers - one with a feeding bottle and on covered in cloth
- the young monkey spent most of its time clinging to the cloth rather than the feeder
however the baby monkeys grew to have abnormal social interaction (ran away from other monkeys = complexity)
what did Bailey et al find?
observed 99 mothers and recorded their children’s attachment type and used the strange situation procedure
- they found that poor insecure attachments coincided with the mothers self-reporting poor attachments with their own parents
this suggests IWM formed through lack of attachment with their own parents and becomes the model for their own relationships with their children
what is the evaluation of early relationships?
bowlby’s theory stresses that strong, consistent early bonds are crucial which has informed modern day parenting practices and child welfare policy
- however, this theory is socially sensitive research because 65% of primary attachments are mothers, therefore pressure for mothers to delay return to work to ensure secure attachment and prevent harm to child
however this is combated by Nathan fox
what did Nathan fox find?
bowlby’s emphasis on the mother is suggested to not be that important by Nathan fox
- he found that babies raised on an Israeli Kibbutz where the children are looked after by a metapelet all day had an attachment bond to their mother that was almost as strong as that formed to the metapelet
what is the evaluation of the critical period?
bowlby suggested 6 months as the key time for development of attachment
- however, rutter et al (2011) showed that it is possible for attachments to form after this period (although MOST are formed in the 6 month period)
rutter argues that this period should be called the sensitive period to reflect when the baby is most sensitive to attachment formation
what is the evaluation of monotropy?
bowlby suggested a primary attachment (monotropy)
- but Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found a small minority of children were able to form multipe attachments
- Van Izjendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) found monotropy was scarce in collectivist societies - the whole family being involved in raising the child therefore, monotropy is not universal
what is the evaluation of sensitivity?
bowlby suggested that sensitivity was important for attachment
- this is supported by Isabella (1993) - a longitudinal study of mother/baby interactions over a year found that mothers who were more sensitively responsive to their babies had the most strongly attached babies
what is the termperament hypothesis?
it is an alternative explanation for the strength of attachment from Kagan:
- proposed the temperament hypothsis; that the babies innate personality can influence attachments - such that a difficult baby effects the mother’s ability to form a close relationship
this suggests it is not as simple as the sensitivity of the caregiver to form an attachment
