Attachment

• Bowlby rejects learning theory as an explanation of attachment. Influenced by Lorenz and Harlow’s animal studies, Bowlby instead argued that humans evolved an innate capacity to form an attachment to one (hence monotropic) attachment figure from birth – usually the mother.
• Bowlby’s explanation of monotropic theory is evolutionary: In a dangerous environment, infants would die if left to fend for themselves, so nature selects for those babies who naturally behave in ways that form bonds with caregivers who will protect them. These natural behaviours are not learned, as learning theory suggests, but are instead pre-programmed from birth (innate).