Mai YongsakulPsychology: ATTACHMENTFriday 1 st October 2010Mr. Smith OUTLINE & EVALUATION OF BOWLBY'STHEORY John Bowlby's theory was more evolutionary based. He proposed that attacment wasimportant for survival – infants are physically helpless and need adults to nurture, care andprotect them in order for them to grow. Without this assistance, they would not survive.Therefore, it is likely that human beings had been evolved in such a way that infants were bornwith an intrinsic tedency to form an attachment in order to increase their chances of survival.On the other hand, adults/ the care-givers of an infant too develop an attachment to them.Bowlby suggested that all human beings had some sort of innate programming which helpedthem form attachments – adults would have a drive for helping the infant to survive: caring,nurturing, feeding them etc. The bond/attachment between the care-giver and infant wasconsidered to have a long-term benefit in addition to the short-temr beneifit of ensuring foodand safety.
Bowlby argued that the attachment behaviours in both caregivers and babies evolved ensuring the survival of the baby until maturity and reproduce. Babies produce instincts like crying and smiling which encourages the caregiver to look after it. Parents especial mothers as per to Bowlby have instincts to protect their baby from harm and nurture them ensuring their survival until maturity. Those babies and mother who don’t possess these behaviours have been less successful. A second most important concept in Bowlby’s theory was the idea of monotrophy a single attachment to one person who is most important to the baby.
Babies have social releaser which unlocks the innate tendency for adults to care for them; these are both physical and behavioural social releasers. Bowlby adopted the idea of a critical period from ethologists like Lorenz, and applied this to his explanation of how human infants form their attachments. Bowlby has several claims. The first being that we have evolved a biological need to attach to our main caregiver, this being the monotropy attachment. Forming this attachment has survival values, as staying close to the mother ensure food and protection.
‘The time is ripe for a unification of Psychoanalytical concepts with those of Ethology’ J Bowlby 1953 Bowlby’s theory begins with the idea that we are all born with innate drives, this comes from the Darwinist theory that all characteristics have survival value, Bowlby would consider attachment to be one of these characteristics. Part of these innate drives is the idea that we are all born with social releasers, Social releasers promote attachment between the child and it’s primary care giver (P.C.G). A releaser such as crying elicits care giving from others nearby. The person who responds most sensitively to the child’s releasers will become the P.C.G. The relationship between child and P.C.G becomes the most important in the child’s life.
This side of the nature-nurture debate suggests that we are a certain way because of the way we were bought up and our life experiences. Biological programming - this comes down to your genes. Biological programming suggests that you will have similar medical conditions to your parents supporting the idea of natural selection and genetics. Maturation theory - this theory sees child development as being controlled by evolution and that genetically there is a series of events that will occur automatically. It is believed the development has a biological process and this can be predicted over time.
Bowlby put forward a theory of attachment based upon the assumption that attachments are formed due to their evolutionary advantages. The theory states that attachments are adaptive and become attached because of the long term benefits such as feeding and protection from a caregiver. It also states that infants have social releasers which are physical and behavioural characteristics that elicit an innate tendency to look after, such as smiling or crying. The attachment is a monotropic attachment to the mother which occurs within the critical period, which is from birth to two and a half years of age. This attachment helps the infant to form an internal working model which is a schema for all future relationships.
John Bowlby adopted the family systems approach theory in relation to his attachment theory. Bowlby’s theories focused more on attachment styles whereas Bowen’s theory was centered specifically on the family as an organization. Bowlby theorized that children have the most successful development within an extended family system. He also believed that the child’s interactions with their caregivers within the first few years of their lives shaped their views of themselves and interactions with others (Blewitt & Broderick, 2015, p. 117). Bowlby in particular believed that the family system was important for a child’s growth and development.
The close ties between humans and animals go back many centuries. Keith Thomas describes the close associations in England where animals and families shared living quarters, where pets providing companionship were often fed better than servants, and where horses were so valuable for work and transportation that no custom of eating their meat developed. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, writers began to discuss animal feelings of pain and suffering, vivisection (the surgical operations performed upon live animals during experiments), cruel treatment of animals raised and slaughtered for food, and the religious teachings that influenced humane treatment of both humans and animals. This new emphasis upon animals' feelings of sensation in the eighteenth century brought growing criticism of some forms of cruelty. Doubts about the ethics of castrating domestic animals were raised as early as 1714.
Behavior, genes, and evolution play a major role in determining the biological foundations of psychology linked to behavior. When children are born certain characteristic, are inherited from their parents such as eye color, height, and hair color, behavioral characteristics are also inherited. With regard to behavioral characteristics some traits are stronger than others such as emotional stability, temperament, and mental ability. Society, environmental exposure and family structure play a major role in how these characteristics are developed and expressed. Two key concepts explain evolution of behavior: ultimate and proximate.
That has been proved by Einstein. However, two years ago even faster velocity was observed. This makes us question, whether what we know is true- if the theory proves to be wrong, it could be discarded. As it can be seen- If one becomes suspicious, obstacles to accept something as knowledge arise- although we may believe we possess objective facts, from a different perspective gained by progress, such facts become re-interpreted in the light of new evidence, discoveries, technology, or societal trends. So, we cannot completely trust our knowledge.