Lesson 6: Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory of Attachment

Question 1

Why do attachments form according to Bowlby’s monotropic theory?

Answer 1

• It says it is an instinct that has evolved because it increases the chance of both the babies survival and the parents passing on their genes- it is therefore adaptive.
• Infants who are attached to their caregiver will stay close to them and so are well protected and will survive.
• Parents who are attached to their children will ensure they survive, meaning that they will have successfully passed on their genes.

Question 2

How do attachments form? What did Bowlby propose that an attachment is determined by?

Answer 2

Infants have an innate drive to become attached to an adult. Innate behaviours have a critical period in which they must occur or they never will. The critical period for attachment is before a child is two years of age.

Bowlby proposed that attachment is determined by the caregivers sensitivity. Infants who are the most strongly attached tend to have a caregiver who is responsive, co-operative and more accessible than less closely attached infants.

Question 3

Social releasers

Answer 3

Social releasers are important during this time- they ensure attachments develop between caregivers and infants. These include smiling and crying. Babies display them to encourage their caregivers to look after them.

Question 4

Monotropy

Answer 4

This bond is often with the biological mother but not always. Infants also form secondary attachments that also provide an important emotional safety net and are vital for healthy psychological and social development.

Question 5

The importance of a monotropic bond

Answer 5

It is that the infant uses this relationship to form a mental view of all relationships called an internal working model.

If the monotropic bond is secure it results in a positive internal working model and means that current and future romantic adult relationships will be positive and secure.

An insecure monotropic bond is associated with fear of intimacy and lack of commitment in adult relationships.

Question 6

What happens if an infant does not have an opportunity to form a monotropic bond?

Answer 6

Then they are not provided with an adequate internal working model for later relationships. According to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory, disruption to the monotropic bond before the critical period leads to later emotional problems. E.g. lack of intimacy

Question 7

The continuity hypothesis

Answer 7

Proposes that individuals who are securely attached in infancy continue to be socially and emotionally competent. This is because a secure childhood leads to a positive internal working model.

Question 8

Evaluation of Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 8

• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) suggest that multiple attachments are more common in babies than monotropy. They found that by 18 months only 13% of infants had only one person they were attached to.
• Feminists like Erica Burman pointed out the idea of monotropy is socially sensitive. It places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame on anything that goes wrong in their child’s life. Bowlby underestimated the father’s role, seeing it as primarily economic. This is an outdated, sexist view as in many families the father is the primary caregiver.
• Impossible to test Bowlby’s argument that attachment has persisted in the same form throughout evolutionary history, making it unscientific.