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Describe and Evaluate Bowlby's Theory as an Explanation of Attachment

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Describe and Evaluate Bowlby’s theory of attachment.

Bowlby presented the evolutionary theory of attachment, which suggested that children come into the world biologically programmed to form attachments with others (it’s innate) because it will help them survive. It suggested that there was a sensitive period for developing attachments (o-4 years) and to form these attachments the infant produces innate ‘social releaser’ behaviours such as crying which causes caregiving to happen and so the attachments are formed though care and responsiveness (not food as the learning theory suggests).
These attachments allow the baby to form a secure base so it can explore the world and develop independence and they are often formed with the infant’s primary caregiver (monotropy) and is of special significance in emotional development. This primary caregiver (often the infant’s mother) can then help the infant to build more attachments with others.
These early emotional attachments are consistent with the attachments they are able to form when they are an adult (continuity hypothesis). It acts as a prototype for all future social relationships so disrupting it can have severe consequences as the child will suffer from irreversible developmental consequences. For example if the infant never had an attachment then they are less likely to be able to form one with their own baby in the future.

Monotropy has two very similar studies done which both provide evidence for it. It was first done by Klaus and kennel in 1976 as they observed how the amount of skin-to-skin contact affected later attachments. They split a group of unmarried, poor, teenage mothers into two groups: the control group who gave their infants the normal level of contact, and the experimental group who gave their infants more than the control group. Their conclusions showed that the experimental group showed

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