Bowlby's Monotropic Theory

• Bowlby’s Theory:

  • Bowlby takes an evolutionary perspective on attachment.
  • Bowlby believes that infants are born with an innate tendency to form attachments to increase their chances of survival.
  • There are 5 key aspects of Bowlby’s Theory:
  • Adaptive
  • Social Releasers
  • Critical Period
  • Monotropy
  • Internal Working Model
• Bowlby (1958): Adaptive:  

  • Attachments are adaptive.
  • According to Bowlby, forming an attachment helps to ensure the survival of a child.
  • Attachment gives our species an ‘adaptive advantage’, making us more likely to survive.
  • This is because if an infant has an attachment to a caregiver, they are given food and kept warm.
• Bowlby (1958): Social Releasers:

  • Babies have social releasers which ‘unlock’ an innate tendency in adults (particularly mothers) to care for them.
  • These social releasers are both:
  • Physical: the typical ‘baby face’ features and body proportions.
  • Behavioural: crying, cooing, smiling.
• Bowlby (1958): Critical Period:

  • Babies have to form an attachment with their caregiver during a critical period.
  • This is between birth and 2 ½ years old.
  • Bowlby said that if a child doesn’t form an attachment during this time, then the child would be damaged socially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically.
  • He later changed this to a 5-year period and called it a sensitive period.
• Bowlby (1958): Monotropy:

  • Bowlby believed that infants form one very special attachment with their mother.
  • This special, intense attachment is known as monotropy.
  • If the mother isn’t available, the infant may bond with another ever-present adult mother substitute.
  • Monotropic bond or a monotropic figure.
  • A bond will be created with the person who is the most sensitive and responsive.
• Bowlby (1958): Internal Working Model:

  • Through the monotropic attachment, the infant would form an internal working model.
  • This is a special model for relationships.
  • All the child’s future adult relationships will be based on their early attachment relationship.
• Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory Strength:

  • One strength of Bowlby’s theory comes from research support by Lorenz.
  • Lorenz showed that imprinting is innate - the goslings were biologically programmed to form an attachment. Divided a group of goose eggs.
  • The mechanism is instinctive and time sensitive.
  • This supports Bowlby’s idea that humans are born with an innate drive to attach to a caregiver (not necessarily their biological mother) — the system is biological, even if the specific figure isn’t.
  • However, since the study was conducted on animals, its findings may not fully be extrapolated to humans, whose attachment behaviours are more complex and influenced by cognitive and emotional factors.
• Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory Strength (2):

  • Research support from Hazan and Shaver supports Bowlby’s concept of the internal Working model.
  • Their ‘Love Quiz’ examined 620 responses, detailing current attachment experiences and attachment history.
  • These results demonstrated a positive correlation between the attachment type and later love experiences.
  • However, the study relies on retrospective self-report, which may lack accuracy due to memory bias and social desirability, limiting the internal validity of the findings.
  • Despite this, the results of the study support Bowlby’s theory of an internal working model and suggest that our early childhood experiences affect our later adult relationships.
• Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory Weakness:

  • Monotropy is a controversial idea because it has implications for the lifestyle choices that mothers make when they are young.
  • Erica Burman (1994) suggests that this places a burden of responsibility for mothers, trivialising their post-partum decisions. This would increase the harmful stereotypes and hinder progressive thinking about working mothers.
  • This is because the law of accumulated separations states that having substantial time apart from a primary attachment figure risks a poor attachment quality.
  • Furthermore, research from Lamb (1997) challenges Bowlby’s monotropic theory as he found that children form multiple attachments and that the quality, not quantity, of care matters most — challenging Bowlby’s emphasis on a singular, constant caregiver.
  • This could be skewed by the media, portraying working mothers in a negative light.