4. Describe and evaluate Bowlby's theory of attachment ( 16 marks)

4. Describe and evaluate Bowlby's theory of attachment ( 16 marks) Bowlby argued that humans are just like other animals – we need an innate tendency to form attachments with a caregiver as it provides a survival advantage. Bowlby’s monotropic theory has 5 distinct elements:Adaptive , Critical Period, Social releasers ,Monotropy and Internal working model. Adaptive: Bowlby believed that Attachment behaviour is innate & evolved over time because it serves an important survival function for infants.INFANT: Forming an attachment is important – caregiver protests them - serves function of helping infants survive. An infant who is not attached is not well protected & so is unlikely to survive. PARENT: Forming an attachment ensures the survival of their offspring – this is the only way for the parent to ensure their genes are passed on to the next generation. Critical period: Because attachment has survival value, infants have an innate drive to form an attachment. This must develop within a specific time period, known as the ‘critical period’ (CP). This is roughly the first two years of the infant’s life.Children who do not form an attachment during the CP – have difficulty forming attachments later on. Social Releasers: During the CP, the quality of the attachment formed is determined by parental sensitivity to social releasers (SR). SR are a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours such as smiling, crying and cooing – all which elicit the attention of the caregiver and encourage caregiving type of responses from the carer. E.g feed and care Monotropy: The infant will form one special emotional bond – a primary attachment. This is known as monotropy. Which is often the infant’s biological mother, but not always. Internal working model : Bowlby also proposed that the monotropic bond provides the child with an internal working model. This is a template of what to expect out of future relationships. This led to the development of - continuity hypothesis 1. Individuals who are secure relationships (positive template) in infancy continue to be socially and emotionally competent – have secure relationships with others in future 2. Individuals who have insecure relationships (negative template) in infancy will have the same difficulties in the future. A strength of Bowlby’s theory is that there is research support for the Continuity hypothesis. For example, The Minnesota parent-child study (Sroufe et al, 2005) followed participants from infancy to late adolescence and found continuity between the quality of early attachment and later emotional/social behaviour that the person engaged in. Individuals who were classed as securely attached in infancy were highest rated for social competence later in childhood, were less isolated, more popular and more empathetic. This is a strength as the internal working memory model states just this, those with a strong attachment in infancy will go on to be socially and emotionally competent. Therefore this increases the validity of Bowlby’s theory. One strength