Natalie
Outline and Evaluate Bowlby's Evolutionary Theory of Attachment
Bowlby's theory is an evolutionary theory becuase he believes attachment is a behavioural system that has evolved because of its survival and reproductive value. Caregiving is adaptive because species have adapted over many years to enhanse survival of the offspring so they can later reproduce. Bowlby's theory is made up of many different ideas. According to Bowlby, children have an innate drive to become attached to a caregiver. This is similar to that of imprinting which is an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother figure which takes place during the sensitive period. Since attachment is innate there is likely to be a limited window for development. This is said to be when a child is 3-6 months when a child is most sensitive to an attachemnt. After this stage attachment can become more difficult. The internal working model is a cluster of concepts about relationships and what to expect from others. In the short term it gives the child and insight into the caregivers behaviour. In the long term it acts as a template for future relationships as it generates expectations. This is similar to the continuity hypothesis and the idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure, trusting and confident adults. Social releases elicit caregiving such as smiling, crying, looking cute etc. This induces monotropy, one relationship that the infant hhas with their primaryattachment figure is of special significance. Infants also have secondary attachment figures which form a hierarchy. These secondary attachment figures act as a safety net and also contribute to social development. Attachment also fosters independance rather than independance. A secure base helps this by giving a child somewhere to come home to after exploring the world.
This is a preview of the whole essay
Peer Reviews
Here's what a star student thought of this essay
Quality of writing
The Quality of Written Communication in this answer is debatable. The candidate does not appear to have implemented a spell-check into her answer, leading to frequent typos - some minor (e.g. "becuase", hhas" "primaryattachment"); others are more detrimental to the clarity of her written expression (e.g. the aformentioned example, " This induces monotropy, one relationship that the infant hhas with their primaryattachment figure is of special significance") These are perfect examples to ensure a proof-read is conducted, as we all make writing and typing errors without realising. Failure to do this will result in low QWC marks.
Level of analysis
The Level of Analysis shown here is indicative of a confident psychology student. The candidate writes fluently, using many appropriate psychological terms to fortify their answer with knowledge and precision, and makes many good references to psychological research (Scheffer & Emmerson, Harlow, Belsky & Rovine), which will help indicate to the examiner that the candidate is capable of assisting their answers with objective empirical evidence relating to the question. The detail in the first section would be sufficient enough to assist even those not aware of Bowlby's theories to garner a fair understanding and comprehension of them, but some information is slightly erroneous and/or is subjected to poor Quality of Written Communication, leading to a misinformation of some parts of the theories, e.g. "Attachment also fosters independance rather than independance", which doesn't aid the answer in any way.
Response to question
This is a sound response that satisfies the demands of the questions nicely. The mark scheme would be looking for the candidate to satisfy AO1 (knowledge and understanding) and AO2 (critical evaluation) and there is evidence of both here. The candidate's essay structure is also very good, consulting their knowledge of Bowlby's theories to concern the "Outline" part of the question and then going on to a critical evaluation that cites empirical evidence for the support and refutation of Bowlby's theories in order to concern the "Evaluate" section. All in all the response is an organised and competent approach to tackle the question.
