Bowlby's Theory

Bowlby's Theory

Argued that attachment was an evolved mechanism that ensured survival of the child
Innate- Social releasers, evolution
1. Attachment behaviours on both babies and their caregivers have evolved through natural selection to ensure baby survives to reach maturity and reproduce
2. Babies posses instincts such as crying and smiling- encourage caregiver to look after them
3. Parents possess instincts designed to protect their baby from harm and to nurture them to ensure survival to maturity.
4. Those who don't possess such behaviours are less successful and their genes are no longer
Monotrophy
1. A single attachment to one person who is most important to the baby
2. Didn't deny that babies formed lots of attachments; he just believed one is more important than the rest
Critical/ Sensitive Path
1. Takes place during the first three years of a child's life
2. He borrowed concept from Lorenz and other ecologists.
3. From research with troubled adolescence - attachment between caregiver shouldn't be disrupted for first three years- otherwise serious consequenceswill occur
Internal Working Model
1. First attachment child builds up model of themselves -lovable or not
  1. Internal working model- begun early childhood- influenced child's adulthood
    1. Referred to as the continuity hypothesis
2. Model of caregiver- trustworthy or not
  1. Model of relationship between the two
Strengths
1. Hazen and Shaver
  1. Love-quiz questionnaire
  2. Information collected about early attachment experiences and current romantic attitudes
    1. They found securely attached as infants - happy and lasting romantic relationships- they believed love was enduring
      1. Insecure as infants- found relationships harder- divorced- felt love was rare
        Supports Internal Working model as it shows how care given at an early life affects child's adulthood
Weaknesses
1. Sentenced
  1. Bowlby's theory is that poor early relationships sentence poor adult relationship
  2. Main and Golgwn argued that people who had difficult childhoods with insecure attachment have gone on to develop positive and secure relationships-"earned security"
    1. This may be due to positive school experiences and strong adult attachments , which have, lead them to develop feelings of security and trust later in their lives
      1. This questions the continuity hypothesis because even if you have a bad childhood - may not effect later life
2. Multiple Attachments
  1. Many psychologists have argued that the baby's first attachment is not special or unique
  2. Shaffer and Emerson's longitudinal study of 60 Glasgow babies found that multiple attachments seemed to be the norm rather than the exception
  3. By 7 months of age , 29% of babies had multiple attachments
  4. By 18 months , 87% had multiple attachments
  5. Schaffer and Emerson also found that the strongest bond wasn't necessarily between mother as Bowlby had implied
  6. At 18 months , half the sample were strongly attached to their mothers and about 1/3 were strongly attached to fathers
  7. This questions monotropy because there is more than one attachment figure

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	Created by zeenakerai almost 11 years ago