Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory (AQA A Level Psychology)

Bowlby's monotropic theory

• John Bowlby was a British psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst (1907-1990)

• He is most well-known for his studies in infant attachment and child development

• Bowlby was influenced by the studies carried out on animals by Lorenz (1935) and Harlow (1959)

  • Bowlby disagreed with learning theory as an explanation for attachment

• Bowlby's research led him to suggest that attachment was an innate system developed as an evolutionary process to aid survival

  • The infant must attach to the caregiver for protection from harm, as a source of food and for nurture/care

  • The parent must attach to the infant to ensure they are cared for and survive

• Bowlby's theory of attachment is described as monotropic as he suggests that the child forms an attachment to one (mono) key caregiver

  • This can be a mother or other person in the child's life such as the father or even a grandparent

  • The more time a child spends with this caregiver - the primary attachment figure - the better the quality of attachment

  • Bowlby proposed two principles to explain this:

    • The law of continuity: the more constant and predictable a child's care the better the quality of attachment

    • The law of accumulated separation: every separation from the primary attachment figure affects the child

How attachment is formed

• Bowly suggested that babies are born with innate behaviours that help a caregiver form an attachment to the infant, such as:

  • smiling

  • cooing

  • gripping a finger

  • having a 'cute' baby face (large eyes, button nose, rounded appearance, rosy cheeks)

• These behaviours are called social releasers as they trigger the adult to interact with the infant so that an attachment can be formed

• It is suggested that where caregivers are more responsive and accessible (in response to the social releasers) there will be stronger attachments made between the caregiver and the infant

• Bowlby suggested that attachment begins early in the infant's life during a critical period from around three to six months, the most sensitive period being around six months

• If attachments are not made during this critical period then the child will find making attachments later on difficult

Internal working model

• Bowlby suggested that a child forms a model for what relationships look like using their attachment and relationship to their primary attachment figure

• He called this the internal working model

  • A child who experiences a loving and secure relationship with a consistent and safe caregiver will grow up to expect this from later relationships

  • A child who experiences a negative relationship with their primary attachment figure will tend to form poor relationships in the future and expect negative treatment or treat others in such a way

  • The model also serves to help the infant influence their caregiver's behaviour (using social releasers) as a way to form an attachment because the infant has a mental representation of the relationship

Evaluation

Strengths

• Studies supporting Bowlby's monotropic theory include animal studies

  • Lorenz (1935) found that gosling geese formed attachments to the first moving thing that they saw after hatching, which suggests that attachment is an innate process

  • This supports Bowlby's idea that attachment has developed as an evolutionary process to aid survival

• There is evidence to support the idea of social releasers

  • Caregivers were instructed to ignore their baby's social releases whereby the babies then became increasingly distressed

  • This suggests that babies use social releasers as a way to elicit attention and attachment to their caregiver

  • These findings support Bowlby's theory of social releasers and their importance in forming an attachment to a caregiver

Limitations

• Research suggests that babies form multiple attachments rather than one attachment

  • Schaffer and Emerson (1964) propose that children form multiple strong attachments to a variety of caregivers from the age of 10- 11 months

  • This suggests that Bowlby's monotropic theory is incorrect

• Infants can form attachments after the critical period

  • Rutter et al. (2010) found, during studies of Romanian orphans, that although it is less likely that attachments are formed after the critical period of three to six months, attachments can form

  • This time of a child's development is important for forming attachments as infants seem to be particularly receptive to forming attachments during three to six months

  • However, attachments have been found to take place after six months and so the critical period is now called a sensitive period