Evaluation points of Bowlby's monotropic theory


	Evaluation points of Bowlby's monotropic theory
	Advantages Support for social releasers- (Brazleton et al 1975) observed that mothers and babies interact through interactional synchrony and mothers were then told to ignore social releasers and the babies showed distress. This strongly supports Bowlby's idea about the significance of infants social behaviour through reciprocity Support for internal working models-(Bailey at al 2007) tested the idea of the working model and assessed 99 mothers with one year old babies using standard interview procedure which was based on their attachment with their own mothers. Mothers who reported poor attachments with their parents were more liekly to have children classified as poor. This supports Bowlby's internal working model of attachment was being passed through families	Disadvantages Mixed evidence for monotropy- (Schaffer and Emerson 1964) did not support the monotropic theory as they established that a child could form multiple attachments Monotropy is a socially sensitive idea- A feminist, Erica Burman 1994, have pointed out that it places a burden on mothers setting them up to take blame for anything that goes wrong in the child's life- however this was not Bowlby's intention as he saw himself boosting the status of mothers by emphasising the importance of their role
	Evaluation

Support for social releasers- (Brazleton et al 1975) observed that mothers and babies interact through interactional synchrony and mothers were then told to ignore social releasers and the babies showed distress. This strongly supports Bowlby's idea about the significance of infants social behaviour through reciprocity
Support for internal working models-(Bailey at al 2007) tested the idea of the working model and assessed 99 mothers with one year old babies using standard interview procedure which was based on their attachment with their own mothers. Mothers who reported poor attachments with their parents were more liekly to have children classified as poor. This supports Bowlby's internal working model of attachment was being passed through families

Mixed evidence for monotropy- (Schaffer and Emerson 1964) did not support the monotropic theory as they established that a child could form multiple attachments
Monotropy is a socially sensitive idea- A feminist, Erica Burman 1994, have pointed out that it places a burden on mothers setting them up to take blame for anything that goes wrong in the child's life- however this was not Bowlby's intention as he saw himself boosting the status of mothers by emphasising the importance of their role

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