Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Explanations of attachment: Bowbly's theory (Key terms (continuity…
Explanations of attachment: Bowbly's theory
Key terms
continuity hypothesis - the idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults.
Critical period - a biologically determined period of time, during which certain characteristics can develop. Outside of this time window such development will not be possible.
Internal working model - a mental model of the wold which enables individuals to predict and control their environment. In the case of attachment the model relates to a person's expectations about relationships.
Monotropy (monotropic) - the idea that the one relationship that the infant has with his/her primary attachment figure is of special significance in emotional development.
Social releaser - a social behaviour of characteristic that elicits caregiving and leads to attahcment
Bowlby's Monotropic Attachment Theory (1969)
Why attachment forms
Important survival function as it keeps us well protected
Parents must also be attached to their infants in order to ensure that they are cared for and survive
Only the parents who look after the offspring that are likely to produce subsequent generations.
How attachment forms
Critical period
Babies have an innate drive to become attached.
The critical period of a child is from 3 to 6 months
Food used to be the main factor that babies would become attached but it was comfort
Social releasers
Help ensure attachments develop from parent to infant
Things like smiling or acting cute are all social releasers
Monotropy
Babies have one special bond - the primary attachment
Infants also form secondary attachments that provide an important emotional safety net and are important for healthy psychological and social development
The consequences of attachment
The consequences of attachment
Internal working model - the infant forms this when they gain their first primary attachment
(1) in the short term it gives the child insight into the caregiver's behaviour and enables the child to influence the caregiver's behaviour , so that a true partnership can formed
(2) in the long term it acts as a template for all future relationships because it generates expectations about what imitate, loving relationships are like.
Evaluation
Is attachment adaptive?
A sensitive period rather than 'critical'?
Multiple attachment versus monotropy
Continuity hypothesis