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Bowlby’s theory was based on the evolutionary perspective, with research with animals by ethologists on non-human animals, particularly birds. Just as physical characteristics of various species develop at certain stages of growth, the ethologists claim that perhaps attachments will only form during similar critical periods. The most famous examples of this are birds forming attachments to the first thing they see upon hatching. Ethologists refer to the phenomenon as imprinting. This is an essential requirement for a duckling and it is the ability, very early in life to recognise its caregiver. This ability is innate (inborn). Imprinting is important for the survival of the species. According to Lorenz it has the following characteristics:

It occurs during a critical period. He found that this imprinting had to occur with the first 36 hours of life.

It is irreversible. Once the bond is formed it cannot be broken, nor can its effects.

It has consequences; short term for survival; long term because it becomes a template (internal working model) for later attachments and behaviour.

Evidence Konrad Lorenz (1935) split a clutch of goose eggs and got half to be hatched by their mother and the rest were placed in an incubator. When the baby geese in the incubator hatched, the first person they saw was Konrad. This group subsequently followed Konrad everywhere and became distressed if they were separated from him.

The effects of imprinting may not be as permanent as Lorenz suggests. Sluckin showed that if young birds are hatched and reared in isolation, the normal critical period can be extended.

Few would argue for such a rigid period of attachments in humans. However, Bowlby, adapting ethological research has argued for a sensitive period. The idea being that there is a time in an infant’s life when it is most likely to form an attachment, but it can continue to form them outside this period. Bowlby believed that attachment is innate and adaptive. We are all born with an inherited need to form attachments and this is to help us survive. In line with Darwin’s theory of natural selection, any behaviour that helps you survive to maturity and reproduce yourself will be maintained in the gene pool. In human terms, the newborn infant is helpless and relies on its mother for food, warmth etc. Similarly the mother inherits a genetic blueprint that makes her show loving behaviour to the infant. Bowlby believed that an attachment promotes survival in 3 ways:

Safety: the attachment keeps mother and child close to each other. Separation results in feelings of anxiety.

Internal working model: the early attachment acts as a blueprint for later relationships. In cognitive terms a schema for ‘relationship’ is produced.

Safe base for exploration: the child is happy to wander and explore (necessary for its cognitive development) knowing it has a safe place to return to if things turn nasty.

Essay

Discuss Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment: Evolutionary basis

of attachment

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Other aspects of the theory:

Critical period: The attachment must be formed within a certain time span (compare to Lorenz’s work on imprinting). For the child, if no attachment is formed within the first two or three years then it is unlikely the child will ever form one.

Social releasers: These are the methods used by the infant to ensure contact is maintained. Typically smiling, gurgling and crying. According to Bowlby adults are genetically programmed to respond to these actions.

Bowlby believed in monotropy, the idea that the child forms one main attachment with a primary caregiver, usually the mother.

Maternal deprivation is the term used by Bowlby to describe the serious developmental impairment that is caused by being separated from the mother in infancy.

Development of attachment According to Bowlby attachment develops in a fixed sequence (similar to Schaffer & Emerson’s (1964) study:

Non-focused orienting and signalling e.g. crying, and for preference for people

Focus on one or more figures: by 3 months can recognise caregivers and will go to them rather than strangers.

Secure base behaviour; by 6 months they are focused on the main caregiver and start showing separation anxiety.

Attachment should also be continuous, consistent, responsive and sensitive.

Evaluation of Bowlby’s theory Bowlby’s theory has been very influential. It has been widely studied. One study which supports Bowlby’s theory is Harlow. In Harlow's initial experiments infant monkeys were separated from their mothers at six to twelve hours after birth and were raised instead with substitute or 'surrogate' mothers made either of heavy wire or of wood covered with soft terry cloth. In one experiment both types of surrogates were present in the cage, but only one was equipped with a nipple from which the infant could nurse. Some infants received nourishment from the wire mother, and others were fed from the cloth mother. Even when the wire mother was the source of nourishment, the infant monkey spent a greater amount of time clinging to the cloth surrogate. Unfortunately the actions of surrogate-raised monkeys became bizarre later in life. They engaged in stereotyped behaviour patterns such as clutching themselves and rocking constantly back and forth; they exhibited excessive and misdirected aggression.

Predictably, the behaviour of these monkeys as mothers proved to be very inadequate .These mothers tended to be either indifferent or abusive toward their babies. The indifferent mothers did not nurse, comfort, or protect their young, but they did not harm them. The abusive mothers violently bit or otherwise injured their infants, to the point that many of them died.

Harlow's research suggested the importance of mother/child bonding. Not only does the child look to his/her mother for basic needs such as food, safety, and warmth, but he also needs to feel love, acceptance, and affection from the

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caregiver. His findings show some long-term psychological physical effects of delinquent or inadequate attentiveness to child needs.

The evidence suggested that warmth and comfort rather than food were more important in nurturing an attachment and provided scientific evidence against the behaviourist (and psychodynamic) cupboard love theories.

There has been much support for Bowlby’s continuity hypothesis, which suggests that the type of relationship a person has in adult life is influenced by their first relationships with caregivers.

It has been widely applied in practical situations, particularly in hospitals, children’s homes and fostering policy. The theory is supported by Bowlby’s own study, ‘44 juvenile thieves’.

But

There is little evidence to suggest that early attachments form a template for later relationships. Bowlby’s belief in a form of human imprinting has also been questioned. Lozoff (1983) in a cross cultural study found that in cultures that encourage early intimate contact between mother and infant future relationships are no more affectionate.

Shaffer and Emerson’s study dispute monotropy as they show that whilst not all attachments are of equal strength, multiple attachments seem to be the rule rather than the exception and that the mother is not always the main attachment figure.

The theory has led to unnecessary guilt for mothers who need or want to work, suggesting that even part-time care by someone else is detrimental for the child. The theory does not take account of the important bond between fathers and their children. Bowlby believed that Fathers were not that important in children’s lives and were there to provide and support. It may be true in western societies that women bear responsibility for child rearing, however research shows that fathers are more significant than Bowlby suggests. This was demonstrated by the Fathers 4 Justice Protest.

Give some ideas of how fathers influence their babies lives: