#monotropy

[yioh]

so what bowlby argued is that stone age/ancient babies were actually masterminds who used their cute baby faces to manipulate adults into protecting them and like ... yeah ... i see it

[absolutepsych]

John Bowlby's Theory Of Attachment

Instinct

Bowlby believed in natural selection - the idea that attachments are formed to ensure that the baby survives to maturity so that they can reproduce.

Children give out social releases to generate a response, such as crying and smiling, which encourage the caregiver to look after them.

The caregiver's instinct is to protect the baby from harm and nurture them to ensure survival to maturity.

Without these instincts, the baby's survival is less successful, so it doesn't survive to maturity and the genes are no longer in the gene pool.

Monotropy

A single attachment is made to one person who is most important to the baby.

For every infant, one relationship is more important than the rest.

Internal Working Model

A template/role model for the baby's future relationships.

The child is said to build up a model of themselves as loveable or not, the caregiver as trustworthy or not and a model of the relationship between the two.

The Internal Working Model will influence the child's later relationships through to adulthood.

Sensitive Period

First 3 years of the child's life.

Borrowed concept from the work of Lorenz and other ethologists who had pointed to rapid formation of attachments in some animals.