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Psychodynamic Approach

Contemporary debate: the mother as primary care-giver — the arguments

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Overview

Recall questions on Contemporary debate: the mother as primary care-giver — the arguments.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What question lies at the heart of this debate?

Evaluation

Give a biological argument for the mother as primary care-giver.

Evaluation

Give the main psychological argument against the mother being the primary care-giver.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What question lies at the heart of this debate?

    Model answer

    Whether the mother is uniquely suited to being an infant's primary care-giver, or whether another adult can fill that role equally well.

  2. 2

    Define the term primary care-giver.

    Model answer

    The primary care-giver is the person who provides most of an infant's daily care and with whom the infant normally forms its strongest attachment.

  3. 3

    What is monotropy?

    Model answer

    Monotropy is Bowlby's claim that an infant forms one special attachment to a single main care-giver which is qualitatively different from all its other attachments.

  4. 4

    How does the maternal deprivation hypothesis support the case for the mother as primary care-giver?

    Model answer

    It argues that breaking the bond with the mother figure in early childhood causes lasting emotional and intellectual damage, implying that continuous maternal care is necessary.

  5. 5

    Give a biological argument for the mother as primary care-giver.

    Model answer

    Pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding release hormones such as oxytocin and prolactin in the mother, which promote bonding and caregiving behaviour towards the infant.

  6. 6

    How can evolutionary reasoning be used to argue that mothers should be the primary care-giver?

    Model answer

    Because a mother invests far more in each offspring than a father does, natural selection is argued to have favoured strong maternal caregiving instincts that improved infant survival.

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