L6 - Explanations Of Attachment - Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

Question 1

What does the evolutionary theory argue

Answer 1

• attachments are innate (infants are born to form them) and have evolved because they aid survival.
• Among our ancient ancestors, Infants who stuck close to their mother were more likely to survive and therefore pass on this genetic trait to their own children
• an innate drive to form attachments has therefore been passed on down the generations
• Bowlby also argued that imprinting and attachment evolved because they ensure that young animals stay close to their caregivers and this protects them from hazards
• similarly a human infant imprints on it’s caregiver to increase survival

Question 2

Who came up with this theory and the name

Answer 2

• Bowlby
• Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Question 3

What did bowlby argue

Answer 3

• attachments evolved because of their survival value
• Children have an innate drive to become attached to a caregiver because attachment has long-term benefits similar to the benefits of imprinting
• Both attachment and imprinting ensure that a young animal stays close to a caregiver who will feed and protect the young animal
• Attachment ‘genes’ are carried forward through generations because they help survival and reproduction

Question 4

Important characteristics that aid formation of attachment

Answer 4

1. Monotropy
2. Social releasers
3. The critical period
4. Internal working model
   Other factors include continuity & secure base

Question 5

Monotropy

Answer 5

• theory described as monotropic as he believed that infants form a number of attachments but one has special importance
• the bias to an individual, the primary attachment figure is called monotropy
• attachment is usually to mother but not necessarily biological mother, it’s the person who responds most sensitively to infants needs
  Included 2 principles

Question 6

2 principles of monotropy

Answer 6

1. The law of continuity – stated that the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment
2. The law of accumulated separation – stated that the effects of every separation from a mother add up ‘and the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’ (1975) (can be for couple hours but not days)

Question 7

Bowlby’s proposal about multiple attachments

Answer 7

• primary attachment figure provides the main foundation for emotional development, self-esteem and later relationships with peers, lovers and one’s own children
• also proposed that attachments are hierarchical
• Secondary attachment figures are also important in emotional development; they act as a kind of safety net and also contribute to social development.

Question 8

Social releasers

Answer 8

• bowlby suggested that babies are born with a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours - social releasers
  -e.g. smiling and having a ‘baby-face’ which elicit care-giving from the caregiver.
• social releasers are innate mechanisms that explain how attachments to infants are formed as both mother and baby have an innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in caregivers
• reciprocal process

Question 9

Critical/sensitive period

Answer 9

• attachment’s innate - so limited window for its development - bowlby argued 2 years
• if attachment isn’t formed within this period then it’ll be hard for the baby to form any further attachments
• bowlby saw this more as a sensitive period - child is maximally sensitive till 2, if attachment isn’t formed in the time then it will be much harder to form one later

Question 10

Internal working model

Answer 10

• child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver – this is known as the internal working model
• the caregiver-infant attachment becomes a template/internal working model for future relationships

Question 11

Consequences of internal working model

Answer 11

1. in the short term it gives the child insight into the caregiver’s behaviour and enables the child to influence the caregiver’s behaviour, so that a true partnership is formed
2. in the long term it acts as a template for all future relationships because it generates expectations about what intimate, loving relationships are like.

Question 12

Secure base

Answer 12

• Attachment is important for protection, and thus acts as a secure base from which a child can explore the world and return to when threatened
• Attachments therefore help in fostering independence

Question 13

Continuity hypothesis

Answer 13

• The internal working model means there is consistency between early emotional experiences and later relationships
• This leads to the continuity hypothesis – the view that there is a link between the early attachment relationship and later emotional behaviour
• individuals who are securely attached in infancy continue to be socially and emotionally competent, whereas insecurely attached children have more social and emotional difficulties later in childhood and adulthood

Question 14

Evaluation of Bowlby’s theory

Answer 14

strengths
- animal research support for imprinting & critical period
- support for monotropy
- support for social releasers
- support for internal working model
- support for continuity hypothesis
weaknesses
- counter evidence against monotropy & evidence for multiple attachments
- critical period challenged
- poor first relationship means that the child will always have poor future relationships has been challenged
- ignores role of father
- temperament may be as important as attachment

Question 15

Animal research support for imprinting & critical period

Answer 15

• Lorenz supports the view that imprinting is innate.
• A similar process is likely to have evolved in many species (including humans) to aid survival. E.g. Lorenz found that baby birds tend to imprint on the first moving object when they hatch – this is similar to human babies – generally babies will imprint on their mother especially if she is breastfeeding.
• Furthermore Lorenz found that if the baby bird did not imprint within the critical period then they would be unable to imprint in the future.
• Similarly, Bowlby also found that if an attachment between the infant and caregiver was not formed in the critical period then it would be difficult to form in the future

Question 16

Support for monotropy

Answer 16

• Bowlby’s theory suggests that attachments have evolved to aid survival, and we should expect them to be universal .i.e. applicable in all cultures.
• Tronick et al. (1992) studied an African tribe in Zaire where babies are looked after and breastfed by other women, although these babies slept with their mother at night.
• It was found that these babies still showed one primary attachment.
• This also supports the idea of monotropy.

Question 17

Support for social releasers

Answer 17

• There is also research support for the concept of social releasers – Brazelton et al (1975) observed mothers and babies during their interactions, reporting the existence of interactional synchrony.
• They then extended the study from an observation to an experiment.
• Primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore their babies’ signals – i.e. their social releasers.
• It was found that babies initially showed some distress but when the attachment figures continued to ignore their babies, some responded curling up and lying motionless
  – although this study is ethically questionable, it does support Bowlby’s claims on how social releasers elicit caregiving and reciprocity.

Question 18

Support for internal working model

Answer 18

• The idea of internal working models is testable because it predicts that patterns of attachment will be passed on from one generation to the next.
• Bailey et al. (2007) tested this idea.
• They assessed 99 mothers with one year old babies on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers using a standard interview procedure.
• The researchers also assessed the attachment of the babies to the mothers by observation.
• It was found that the mothers who reported poor attachment to their own parents in the interviews were much more likely to have children classified as poor according to the observations.
• This supports the idea that as Bowlby said, an internal working model of attachment was being passed through the families.

Question 19

Support for continuity hypothesis

Answer 19

• The Minnesota longitudinal study has followed participants from infancy to late adolescence and found continuation between early attachment and later emotional/social behaviour.
• Individuals who were classified as secure in infancy were rated the highest for social competence in later life.- this study supports Bowlby’s continuity hypothesis

Question 20

Counter evidence against monotropy & evidence for multiple attachments

Answer 20

• Many psychologists argue that Bowlby puts too much emphasis on the child’s attachment with their primary attachment figure (usually the mother), and that other attachment figures are actually as equally important.
  E.g. attachments to fathers help children in their social development, attachments to siblings help children to have relationships with peers.
• Bowlby mentioned the term ‘primary and secondary’ attachment as opposed to multiple attachments suggesting that attachments are formed in a hierarchy.
• Furthermore Schaffer and Emerson (1964) also focussed on the concept of multiple attachments and that each attachment figure held its own value in the infant’s life.
• Furthermore cross cultural research e.g. Tronicks study shows that infants can form multiple attachments too.

Question 21

Critical period challenged

Answer 21

• Although children may find it harder to form an attachment after the critical period, it is very much possible.
• Tizard and Hodges found that 21/22 of children adopted aged 4 years went on to form a secure attachment with their adopted parents by the time they were 8 years old.
• suggests it’s possible to form an attachment outside the critical period

Question 22

Poor first attachment relationship means that the child will always have poor future relationships has been challenged

Answer 22

• The theory implies that poor early relationships ‘sentence’ a person to adult relationships.
• Research has shown that individuals with difficult childhoods and insecure attachments can go on to develop positive and secure relationships in adulthood.
• This may be due to positive school experiences or strong adult attachments which lead them to develop feelings of security and trust later in life.

Question 23

Ignores role of father

Answer 23

• Bowlby’s theory also ignores the role of the father as a primary attachment figure – since Bowlby focuses more on the role of the mother and only sees the father as a secondary attachment figure if at all.
• In fact, the father’s role is seen as primarily economic.
• As we have seen, that fathers play an important nowadays in the upbringing of children – so his theory can be seen as sexist and outdated

Question 24

Temperament may be as important as attachment

Answer 24

• Bowlby’s approach emphasises the role of attachment in the child’s developing social behaviour.
• However, a different tradition of child development emphasised the role of temperament in the development of social behaviour.
• Temperament is the child’s genetically influenced personality.
  E.g. temperament researchers suggest that some babies are more anxious or sociable than others depending on their genes.
• Kagan (1982) argued that it was a baby’s temperament that influenced the caregiver’s sensitivity and that generally more happier babies encouraged more sensitive caregiving than more moody babies.
• Thus Bowlby over emphasised the attachment relationship as being an important indicator of future relationships – rather relationship quality may be based on the individual’s temperament.