Lesson 7 Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

Question 1

Why attachments form

Answer 1

The fundamental principle of Bowlby’s theory is that attachment between infants and their caregivers is an instinct that has evolved because it increases the chances 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 are well cared for and so survive, meaning that they will have successfully passed on their genes.

Question 2

How attachments form

Answer 2

Infant’s have an innate (biological programmed) drive to become attached to an adult. Innate behaviours usually 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. Infant’s who do not have an opportunity to form an attachment during this time will have difficulty forming attachments later on.

Bowlby proposed that attachment is determined by the caregiver’s 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.

Social releasers are important during this time to ensure that attachments develop between caregivers and their infants. Social releasers include smiling and crying, they are behaviours that elicit care giving. Babies display them to encourage their caregivers to look after them.

Bowlby argued that infants will have one special emotional bond; he referred to this as monotropy. 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 3

What is an internal working model

Answer 3

Bowlby argued that infants will have one special emotional bond; he referred to this as monotropy. This bond is usually, but not always, with the biological mother. The importance of the monotropic bond is that the infant uses this relationship to form a mental view of all relationships called an internal working model.

Question 4

Positive internal working model

Answer 4

If the montropic bond is secure it results in a positive internal working model and means that current (such as those with other children), future (such as those with the individual’s own children) and romantic adult relationships will be positive and secure.

Question 5

What happens when you have an insecure monotropic bond

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What happens when infants don’t have the opportunity to form a monotropic bond

Answer 6

If an infant does not have an opportunity to form a monotropic bond than 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/commitment).

Question 7

Continuity hypothesis

Answer 7

The continuity hypothesis 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

Disadvantages 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 the infants had only one person they were attached to.
• Feminists like Erica Burman have pointed out that the idea of monotropy is socially sensitive. It places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in their child’s life. It also puts pressure on mothers to stay at home and give up their careers. Bowlby also underestimated the role of the father – he saw father’s role as primarily economic. This is an outdated sexist view, many families view both parents as equally responsible for childcare, and in many families the father is the primary caregiver.
• Tizard and Hodges (1989) found that children who had never formed any attachments by the age of four, and were then adopted, could still form attachments to their new adopted parents. This goes against the idea of a critical period before two years of age during which an attachment must form or it never will.
• It is impossible to test Bowlby’s argument that attachment has persisted in the same form throughout our evolutionary history, making it unscientific.
• Kegan (1984) disagreed with Bowlby about the quality of an infant’s attachment being determined by the caregiver’s sensitivity. He explained infant’s attachments to their caregivers in terms of their innate temperament. According to his theory some infants are better suited to forming attachments then others due to their innate characteristics. Rovine (1987) found that infants who had been judged to have signs of behavioural instability between one and three days old were later more likely to have an insecure attachment.