Bowlby's Monotropic Theory

• An evolutionary theory of attachment

  •Bowlby proposed an evolutionary theory of attachment: the idea that we have an innate tendency to form attachments because they give a survival advantage. An infant who is attached is better protected.•The attachments are a two-way process – parents must also be attached to their infants in order to ensure that they are cared for and survive. It is only the parents who look after their offspring that are likely to produce subsequent generations.
• An evolutionary theory of attachment

  •Therefore, attachment is a biological process, and caregiving is an evolutionary behaviour that has developed through natural selection.
• Social Relasers


  •Bowlby suggested that babies are born with a set of innate ‘cute’ features and behaviours that encourage attention from adults. These activate the innate adult attachment system – the tendency for adults to care for them.
• •These social releasers are both:–Physical – the typical ‘baby’ face - big eyes, small nose, small chin, high forehead–Behavioural – e.g. crying, cooing, gripping
• Social Releasers


  •Bowlby recognised that attachment is a reciprocal process. Both the mother and baby have an innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in caregivers.
• Critical Period


  •Bowlby argued that babies have an innate (biological) drive to become attached and that this must take place during a critical period, around 2 years. Infants who do not form an attachment in this time will have difficulty forming attachments later on.
• Sensitive Period


  •Bowlby viewed this more as a sensitive period, in which a child is maximally sensitive at the age of 2 but, if it an attachment was not formed in this time they would be a lot harder to form (around 5 years)
• Monotrophy


  •Bowlby proposed that the relationship that the infant has with his/her primary attachment figure is of special significance in their emotional development and is a more important relationship than the rest for their development. This is called monotropy.
• IWM


  •A child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver, called an internal working model. This gives the child a model of what relationships are like. In the long-term, this acts as a template for all future relationships because it generates expectations about what intimate, loving relationships are like.
• The continuity hypothesis: Individuals who are securely attached in infancy continue to be socially and emotionally competent. They are likely to have secure relationships as adults
• Ao3 – internal working model


  •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.•Researchers assessed 99 mothers with one-year-old babies on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers using a standard interview procedure.•They also assessed the attachment of the babies to the mothers by observation.
• Ao3 – internal working model


  •They found that the mothers who reported poor attachments 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 suggested, an internal working model of attachment was being passed through families. Therefore, this supports the validity of Bowlby’s explanation of attachment.
• Ao3 – undermining studies Bowlby suggested that babies formed one attachment to their primary caregiver and that this attachment was special and, in some way, different from later attachments. Only after this attachment was established could a child form multiple attachments.

  This is not supported by Schaffer and Emerson (1964). They found that most babies did attach to one person first. However, they also found that a significant minority appeared able to form multiple attachments at the same time.
• Ao3 – undermining studies


  This suggests that the idea monotropy may not be entirely externally valid as it doesn’t appear to apply to all infants.
• Ao3 – ethical issues


  •Monotropy is a controversial idea because it has major implications for the lifestyle choices mothers make when their children are young. Having substantial time apart from a primary attachment figure risks a poor-quality attachment that will disadvantage the child in a range of ways later.
• Ao3 – ethical issues


  •This places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything goes wrong in the rest of the child’s life. It also pushes mothers into particular lifestyle choices like not returning to work when a child is born.
• Ao3 – research support


  •Researchers observed mothers and babies during their interactions. Primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore their babies’ signals. The babies initially showed some distress, but when the attachment figures continued to ignore them, some responded by curling up and lying motionless.
• Ao3 – research support

  •There is clear evidence to suggest that cute infant behaviours are intended to initiate social interaction and that doing so is important for the baby.•The fact that the children responded so strongly supports Bowlby’s ideas about the significance of infant social behaviour in eliciting caregiving.
• Ao3 – less critical for survival?

  •Attachment is clearly important in emotional development but it may be less critical for survival. Bowlby suggested that attachments develop when the infant is older than three months. This is very late as a mechanism to protect infants.•For our distant ancestors, it would have been vital for infants to become attached as soon as they are born.
• Ao3 – less critical for survival?

  •However, human infants don’t need to cling onto mothers like new-born monkeys do as their mothers can carry them. It is when they start crawling (from around six months) that attachment is vital and that is when attachments develop.