Bowlby's monotropic theory

Bowlby's monotropic theory

1. Credited as father of psychology

2. Monotropy

   • One attachment
     • Against
       • 39% of children had their main attachment to someone other than the main carer
         • Schaffer and Emerson
       • Rutter (1981)
         • found there was no particular attachment behaviour used specifically and exclusively towards mothers
       • Lamb et al
         • Found while attachments to different people were not identical,it wasnt they they were in a hirearchy of importance, they were just for different purposes eg infants go to fathers to play but mothers for comfort
   • for
     • Schaffer and Emerson
       • children tended to have one primary attachment figure
       • attachment was most likely to be with the person who showed the perrson most sensitive responsiveness and this wasn't necessarily the persin who spent most time with the infant

3. What is the critical period?

   • the time in which an attachment needs to form
     • up to 2 1/2 years
       • he believed attachments cannot form after the critical period

4. Believed the purpose of an attachment is survival

5. Believed in social releasers - smiling, crying, eye contact, making noise

6. influenced by both animal studies especially Harlow and rejected the learning theory

7. Internal working model

   • attachment relationships provides a template for all future relationships
   • Quality of infants early emotional experiences will influence the quality of later relationships
   • support
     • Hanzen and Shaver (1987)
       • love quiz
       • secure children as adults had long meaningful relationships

8. Supporting research

   • Lorenz
     • Similar in the built tendency to make an initial attachment
     • critical period
       • different in humans and goslings
     • one attachment

9. Research against

   • Rutter et al (1998)
     • (orphan studies)
       • ignores critical period