Explanations of Attachment - Bowlby's Evolutionary Theory

• we have an innate tendency to form attachments because they give us a survival advantage
• an infant who is attached is better protected and better adapted
• it is a two-way process - parents must also be attached to their infants in order to ensure that they are cared for and survive
• the parents who look after their offspring are likely to produce subsequent generations
• attachment is a biological process and care giving is an evolutionary behaviour that is developed through natural selection
• Bowlby argues that babies have a biological drive to become attached and this must take place during a 2 year critical period otherwise they will have difficulty forming attachments later on in life
• the relationship that the infant has with their primary attachment figure is of special significance in their emotional development and the most important relationship for their development (monotropy)
• he also states that a child will form a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver, known as the internal working model, which gives the child a model of what relationships are like
• social releasers

  • babies are born with cute features and behaviours that encourage attentions from adults which activate the innate adult attachment system - the tendency for adults to care for them
  • social releasers are physical and behavioural
  • attachment is a reciprocal where both the mother and baby have innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in caregivers
• physical social releasers

  the typical baby face - big eyes, small nose, small chin, high forehead
• behavioural social releasers

  crying, cooing, gripping
• the continuity hypothesis

  • law of continuity - the more consistency and predictable a child's care, the better quality of their attachment
  • law of accumulated separation - the effects of every separation from the mother add up, every time apart is not good for the attachment
  • continuity hypothesis - individuals who bare securely attached in infancy will continue to be socially and emotionally competent, likely to have secure relationships as adults
• adaptive

  bowlby's theory states that attachment is adaptive over time and dependent on species - improtant for survival
• social releasers

  innate characteristics that adults find cute which helps them to attach
• critical period

  infants hace to form attachment within a 2 year period
• monotropy

  an attachment to one primary attachment figure
• internal working model

  a mental representation of what future relationships are meant to be like
• continuity hypothesis

  if they form a good relationships with people most important to them later in life
• evaluation

  • Schaffer and Emerson found that some babies form attachments to multiple figures at the same time, which undermines Bowlby's theory of monotropy
  • he says that mothers should stay at home and therefore if they don't make an attachment for some reason, it's the mother's fault and theredore places a really heavy burden on them to make lifestyle choices they wouldn't want
  • Bailey et al researched 99 mothers and asked them about whether they had good relationships with their parents and children, those who had poor relationships with their parents had poor attachments with their children and those who had good relationships with their parents, had good attachment with their children