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BOWLBYS MONOTROPIC THEORY - Coggle Diagram
BOWLBYS MONOTROPIC THEORY
adaptive
influenced by the work of Lorenz and Harlow, and proposed an evolutionary explanation
imprinting (and attachment) evolved because they ensure young animals and their carers stay close and this protects the infants from hazards
that attachment was an imprinting system that was adaptive, providing a survival advantage
social releasors
These characteristics are called social releasors and are both physical e.g. a typically (cute) baby face etc. and behavioural e.g. crying, cooing
e.g. make the adult attach to and feel love towards the baby)
born with certain characteristics which elicit care giving and promote interactions
Bowlby recognised that attachment was reciprocal (i.e. a two-way process) as adults have an innate predisposition to become attached, and the social releasors ‘trigger’ that response in caregivers
this builds a relationship
critical period
It is thought that if an attachment is not formed by the end of 2 years, a child will find it very difficult to form an attachment later on
Bowlby later proposed a ‘sensitive period’ of up to 5 years.
this becomes maximally sensitive at around 12 months where the attachment system is active
monotropy
require a unique relationship to develop an internal working model and emotional maturity – this special bond is known as a monotropic bond
law of accumulated separation – a baby should spend as much time as possible with its primary attachment figure as the negative effects of each ‘separation’ will build up (‘accumulate’)
a child forms an attachment to one (i.e. mono) particular care-giver which was qualitatively different from and more important than all other relationships
weakening the mother’s attachment to her baby OR cause the baby to have a poor internal working model.
internal working model
attachment type will impact on friendship relationships as well as the child’s later ability to parent themselves in the future
they base their parenting behaviours on their own experience of being parented. This is known as the continuity hypothesis.
For example, a child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will have a tendency for forming an expectation that all relationships are loving and reliable, bringing these qualities to future relationships
children form a template (schema or mental representation) of their relationship with their primary caregiver