Explanations Of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Question 1

Monotropy + the laws Bowlby (B) came up with

Answer 1

• emphasis on child’s A to only ONE caregiver
• believed the more time a baby spent with this mother figure / P.A figure the better
• evolutionary explanation, rejected the ‘learning theory’
  Two principles:
  1. Law of continuity - more constant + predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of A
  2. Law of accumulated separation - effects of every separation from the mother, add up

Question 2

Social releasers and the critical period

Answer 2

• babies born with innate ‘cute’ beh e.g. smiling, cooing, gripping - encourage attention from adults
• called social releasers, activate social interactions to make them attach to the baby
• B proposed a critical period; around 6 months when A system is active
  … reviewed and made it a sensitive period extended it to the age of 2
• if an A is nor formed in that period a child will find it harder to form one later

Question 3

Internal working model

Answer 3

• child forms mental representation of their relationship with P.A figure; called ‘internal working model’ - a model for what a relationship looks like
• a child whose first experience is of loving relationship with C.G, forms expectations that all relationships should be like that and bring the qualities into future relationships
• if the child’s first relationships are poor, they will exert the same treatment on others in the future
• internal working model affects the child’s later ability to be a parent themselves, tend to base parenting off the parents they had.

Question 4

Evaluate Bowlby’s theory of Attachment - strengths

Answer 4

STRENGTHS:
Evidence supporting the role of social releasers; evidence that cute baby beh are designed to elicit interactions from C.G
- research; asked the P.C figures to ignore their babies social releasers - became increasingly distressed and some curled up and lay motionless
- role of social releasers in emotional dev + important in forming A

STRENGTH:
Support for the internal working model
- Bailey et al; assessed relationships in 99 mothers and their 1 yr old babies + the mothers A to their own mothers -> found that mothers with poor A to their P.A figures more likely to have poorly A babies
- supports B idea that mothers ability to form A to babies influenced by I.W.M
COUNTERPOINT:
Other influences on social dev; genetic differences in anxiety affect social beh in adults + babies
- B may have overstated the importance of the I.W.M

Question 5

Limitations

Answer 5

LIMITATION:
Concept of Monotropy lacks validity
- Schaffer + Emmerson; found that a significant minority formed multiple A at a time
… although the 1st A has strong influence on later beh, not necessarily different in quality from the child’s other A