Bowlby's Monotropic Theory

Bowlby's Monotropic Theory

1. Monotropy

   • He believes that child's attachment to one specific caregiver (mono) is very important and different to the others
     • Called them the 'mother'
   • He said the more time spent with the 'mother' (primary attachment) the better
   • The law of continuity said the more constant and predictable a child's care is, the better the attachment
   • The law of accumulated separation which says that every separation 'adds up' so zero separation is best

2. Social Releasers and Critical Period

   • Babies are born with a set of innate 'cute' features like smiling to get attention from parents
     • Social releasers because it activates adult attachment system
   • The attachment slowly builds up where it begins in the early weeks of life
   • Bowlby said there is a critical period around two years when the attachment system is active
   • Bowlby viewed it more a sensitive period rather than a critical as the child will find it hard to form attachments after two

3. Internal Working Model

   • Your first attachment sets an idea of how relationships work in the future
   • If it is a good relationship then they will expect good relationships in the future, if it is bad then they will expect bad relationships
   • It will also affect how they parent in the future

4. Evaluation

   • Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that most babies did attach to one person first but found a significant minority appeared to form multiple attachments at the same time
   • Studies of attachment to mother and father show that attachment to mother is more important in predicting later behaviour but it could just mean that this attachment is stronger, not better
   • Brazleton (1975) observed mothers and babies during interaction reporting interactional synchrony and then once the primary attachment ignored the babies for long enough, they would stop and lie motionless
   • Bailey (2007) assess 99 mothers with 1 year old babies on quality of attachment, mothers who reported poor attachments with own parents were more likely to have children classified as poor according to observation (supports IWM)
   • Erica Burma (1994) pointed out that it places a terrible burden on the mother as they will be responsible on how the child will turn out and encourages them to stay with the baby 24/7
     • Bowlby wanted to boost their status by emphasising the importance of their role
   • Kagan (1982) stated that children have different temperaments as a result of their genetic makeup which means babies will act differently to each other and researchers accuse Bowlby of over-emphasising the importance of the beginning of a child's life