How Do You Describe And Evaluate Bowlby's Theory Of Attachment
Attachment is a key part of childhood and there are many theories on how humans attach to their caregivers in childhood.
Bowlby’s(1958) theory on childhood attachment drives from his idea that humans have an innate disposition to form a close attachment to one special caregiver or monotropy. This is the survival of the fittest idea, that only babies with strong attachments to their mothers will live through to adulthood and although that is not something that strictly applies to modern day life, research has shown that children who don’t make a secure first attachment with in the critical period, before the age of two and a half, may suffer major consequences such as difficulty showing affection(counselling dictionary), higher levels of aggression, lower IQ’s. Bowlby’s theory also distances itself from the learning theory as Bowlby thought that children attach through …show more content…
The mother constantly supplying the infant with food will lead the infant to associate the mother with pleasure, this is positive reinforcement and teaches the child to attach to their mother because being close to her means that the infant will not feel hungry.
Bandura(1988) progressed the learning theory by suggesting that children imitate their parents behaviours and thereby seeing this as how to be affectionate so how a parent would treat their child would lead to how the child will respond. The theory relies on the idea that if a parent is kind and caring towards their child than that child will also be kind and caring whereas a parent who is mean and abusive will raise a mean and abusive child. Therefore a child with kind parents will attach to them quickly and securely as they would have learnt that this is an okay
Bowlby’s(1958) theory on childhood attachment drives from his idea that humans have an innate disposition to form a close attachment to one special caregiver or monotropy. This is the survival of the fittest idea, that only babies with strong attachments to their mothers will live through to adulthood and although that is not something that strictly applies to modern day life, research has shown that children who don’t make a secure first attachment with in the critical period, before the age of two and a half, may suffer major consequences such as difficulty showing affection(counselling dictionary), higher levels of aggression, lower IQ’s. Bowlby’s theory also distances itself from the learning theory as Bowlby thought that children attach through …show more content…
The mother constantly supplying the infant with food will lead the infant to associate the mother with pleasure, this is positive reinforcement and teaches the child to attach to their mother because being close to her means that the infant will not feel hungry.
Bandura(1988) progressed the learning theory by suggesting that children imitate their parents behaviours and thereby seeing this as how to be affectionate so how a parent would treat their child would lead to how the child will respond. The theory relies on the idea that if a parent is kind and caring towards their child than that child will also be kind and caring whereas a parent who is mean and abusive will raise a mean and abusive child. Therefore a child with kind parents will attach to them quickly and securely as they would have learnt that this is an okay