Bowlby Monotropic Theory

• Bowlby proposed millions of years of evolution produced a behaviour that is essential for survival in infants
• He suggested humans are born helpless and totally depend on caregiver for food, warmth and safety.
• Natural selection has passed on genes that lead to attachment forming behaviours.
• Bowbly argued infants form a single special attachment with one primary caregiver, usually the mother - this is called monotropy.
• Other attachments form in an hierarchy underneath the monotropy attachment e.g brothers, grandparents.
• Bowlby believed attachment behaviours are innate
• Babies are born with tendency’s to display certain innate behaviours known as social releasers - such as crying, crawling and smiling.
• He proposed most developmental process take place during a critical period, if this does not happen they may not develop at all. The critical period is 30 months.
• Bowlby put forward two laws;

  1. Law of continuity
  2. Law of accumulated separation
• Law of continuity states that the more constant and predictable a child’s care the better quality of attachment
• Law of accumulated separation states that the effect of every separation from mother add up and the safest amount is infact zero.
• Rutter et al studied romanIan orphans who had had minimal adult contact - when they were adopted from US/UK families in their first year of life, they were able to form stable attachments. Bowlby theory said if adopted after 6 months they would not be able to form attachments.

  • They did form attachments just with much slower progress
  • Shows idea of critical period should be modified
• Bowlby suggested infants develop an internal working model of relationships based on special emotional relationships with their primary caregiver.

  • The primary caregivers behaviour is a model for what the infant expects from others
• One evaluation to Monotropic idea is it has practical application
• Monotropic theroy has practical application as it is widely acknowledged in society and how attachments should form in the first few years of life. Accepted by adoption agencies.
• An evaluation to monotropic idea is there is mixed evidence
• Mixed evidence for monotropic theory comes from Schaffer and Emerson. Bowlby believes babies form one attachment to primary caregiver and only after this can they form others. S and E found babies do attach to primary caregiver but some can form multiple at the same time.
• An evaluation to monotropic theory is temperament is a factor
• Tempermant may be a factor in attachment as soon babibes are more anxious than others and some may be more socialable.

  • Could explain later social behaviour rather than attachment