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Explanation: Bowlby's Theory - Coggle Diagram
Explanation: Bowlby's Theory
Evaluation
Gender Bias
Lacks generalisability
Only focused on mother-child relationships.
Can't see effect if the father was the primary care-giver.
Temporal Validity
Research was done in the 1940s and 50s.
Family situations may have changed since then.
There are more single parents, stay at home fathers and same sex parents
Individual Differences
People may form attachments differently and at different paces.
This may affect how accurate Bowlby's findings were.
Why attachments form
Bowlby developed theory based on evolution by observing and interviewing children and their families who were separated in the aftermath of WW2, usually conducted in hospitals or institutions.
Attachments evolve because it serves an important survival function. Infants form attachments to get better protection.
2 direction attachments - adults must be attached to their infants to ensure they are cared for and survive to help produce subsequent generations.
How attachments form
Babies have innate drives to become attached over a specific time period - critical period - 3 to 6 months. If infants don't form attachments by this point, they have trouble developing relationships later on.
Social releasers - ensure attachments develop from parents to infant e.g. smiling and having a babyface which elicits caregiving. These are innate mechanisms on how that explain how attachments to infant form.
Proposed that infants have one special bond which is the primary attachment usually to the mother - monotropy - and form secondary attachments as a safety net.
Difference between critical and sensitive period - SP is more flexible for developing attachments, CP is too harsh.
Developed idea of a secure base - the person an infant will always respond back to if they leave in order to make sure they are safe.
Consequences
Importance of monotropy - infant has one special relationship and forms a mental representation of this called Internal Working Model.
In short term IWM gives child insight into caregiver's behaviour and enables child to influence it so a true partnership can form.
In long term IWM acts as a blueprint for further relationships because it generates expectations of what intimate, loving relationships are.
Infants with strong attachments continue to be socially and emotionally competent, where children who are not strongly attached have more social and emotional difficulties in child/adulthood.