Describe and Evaluate One Theory of Attachment and Consider its Significance on Child Rearing Today Bowlby (1951) was influenced by ethological studies that suggested infants were "genetically programmed to form attachments to a single caregiver within a critical time period." The critical time period described is called the "sensitive period," it is a period of time in which something is likely to occur. He suggested that "mother love in infancy is as important for mental health as vitamins and proteins are for physical health." Bowlby focused on the mother as the attachment figure. Bowlby argued that attachment was an "evolved mechanism;" an innate response that ensured the survival of the child.
The innate nature of attachment was illustrated and supported by Lorenz in his studies of geese. Lorenz hatched two groups of geese eggs - one group stayed with their natural mother and the other group were hatched in an incubator. The first moving thing the incubator group saw when they hatched was Lorenz himself, and the geese immediately started to follow him around. When the incubator geese and natural mother geese were mixed together, they would quickly separate into the two original groups and follow either Lorenz or their natural mother. Imprinting of this nature in animals has a clear survival advantage as it keeps them close to their mother who would naturally protect them from predators and increase their chances of survival.
A number of studies have shown that adults are less likely to mate with individuals whom they were raised with. This shows that imprinting (or early attachment) is for the purpose of the infant to bond with its mother to make sure they sustain a short-term bond which is important for survival. So the infant can reproduce I the future, which is what evolution, is all about. If attachment did evolve, like Bowlby suggests (biological function), then we would expect attachment and caregiving behaviours to be universal. So there would be no cultural bias.
He called this idea monotropy. He stated that the infant has only one primary caregiver to whom the child will form an attachment. However this idea has been contradicted by other psychologists who say that a child can form attachments to more than one person, for example to their mother as well as their father. A key feature of Bowlby’s theory is that the attachment formed as a child provides the child with an internal working model of relationships, which will in turn guide relationship behaviour in the future. A secure child will develop a positive internal working model of itself because of the sensitive emotional care it has received from its primary caregiver.
Also this essay will discuss the impact on children and adults of disrupted attachment and separation. Bowlby’s theory of attachment is the idea that children form a two way attachment with their primary caregiver, and this relationship should be warm, intimate and continuous in order for the child to develop properly. Bowlby believed that the relationship between a mother or primary caregiver and their child was most crucial during the first 18 to 24 months of life and that is, was this time, which affected later socialisation. He also thought that there was a sensitive period in the first few years of life and if an attachment was not formed. In addition he suggested the idea of monotropy, which is the suggestion that infants tend to direct attachment behaviours towards a single attachment figure, and that there is one special bond and this is typically between a mother and its child.
His conclusions led him to postulate that the distress at separation from the mother was universal in babies. Bowlby characterised this distress as following the pattern of infant protest, followed by despair and ending in eventual detachment. The term 'separation anxiety' was brought about echoing ethological survival techniques in which patterns of actions enable survival of young animals. Such ideas influenced Bowlby in postulating a significant period attachment of one to five years which was imperative historically to biological survival, and if were not in place then emotional and intellectual problems would occur in adulthood. This can be seen as a rigid attitude and has played a large part in influencing childcare decisions through the establishment of a connection between maternal
(Bowlby, 1969) Fonagy et al. (1993) sought to empirically test the validity of Bowlby's idea of internal working models. The results they produced supported the concept of internal working models, demonstrating that mothers who had mental representations of insecure attachments with their own parents tended to be less securely attached to their own children. In accordance with the internal working model hypothesis, Bowlby believed that secure and long term relationships with a caregiver was essential to the infants later development. Therefore, any disruption to the attachment bond before the child reaches two years of age will have negative consequences for the future.
‘Bowlby’s Evolutionary Theory of Attachment Suggest that Babies are Biologically Pre-Programmed to form Attachments with the Primary Caregiver as a Survival Mechanism’. Discuss this statement in relation to research into attachment. Bowlby described attachment as being a “…lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.” Bowlby’s Attachment theory focuses on the ‘connectedness’ between infants and their primary caregivers i.e. their mothers, He states that this connection is an innate process which evolved as a survival mechanism to protect the infants and ensure that genes could be passed on. Bowlby’s attachment theory was heavily influenced by Darwin’s survival of the fittest as well as animal studies such as Lorenz’s geese study.
He proposed a theory of continuation; individuals who are securely attached during infancy develop to be socially and emotionally competent in the future, on the other hand, insecurely attached children have more social and emotional difficulties later on in childhood and adulthood. The reason behind this is because the mother’s behaviour creates an internal working model of relationships that in effect leads the infants to expect the same in later relationships. According to Bowlby, children have an innate determination to become attached to a caregiver because it has long-term benefits as does Imprinting. This is because both attachment and imprinting ensures that a young child/animal stays close to a caregiver who can provide it with food, comfort and protection. In this way, attachment and imprinting are adaptive behaviours.
John Bowlby’s theory of Attachment John Bowlby is an evolutionary psychologist within the filed of developmental psychology. His theory provides an evolutionary perspective towards attachment combining Freud’s views on the importance of the maternal care (psychoanalytic approach) and the ethnologists’ views on imprinting. Bowlby’s theory suggested that attachment is an innate and adaptive process. An infant is genetically programmed in a way for survival and has been ascribed skills such as sucking, grasping, crying: known as “social releasers”. Bowlby believed that a mother has similar genetic coding that allows her to react instinctive to, and respond to her infants needs.