Bowlby's Attachment Theory

Outline and Evaluate One or More Theories of Attachment. (12mark)

Attachment can be described using two theories, one being Bowlby’s attachment theory (1946) which is based on an evolutionary perspective. The aim was to find out whether there was a relationship between maternal deprivation and emotional problems in children who had been referred to Bowlby’s child guidance clinic. It aimed to test the validity of Bowlby’s Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis. 88 children (an opportunity sample) were selected. 44 were juvenile thieves who had been referred because of their stealing and 44 were controls who had been referred because of emotional problems. Retrospective and present case studies were used. The outcomes were that more than half of
Hodges and Tizard (1989) found that children who have formed no attachments had later difficulties with their peers. This therefore supports Bowlby’s concept of a sensitive period during which infants are most sensitive to the development of attachments. Another strength is that if attachment did evolve as Bowlby suggests then we would expect attachment and caregiving to be universal. Tronick et al (1992) studied an African family tribe where infants were fed by different women but slept with their own mother at night. However, despite this, after six months the children all still showed one primary attachment. This supports the view that we are born to attain attachment because attachment and caregiving are universal and not influenced by different cultures. Finally, Bowlby suggested that infants form multiple attachments which then form a hierarchy and there is much evidence to support this. The study by Schaffer and Emerson (1964) also found that most infants have many attachments. They reported that there was little relationship between time spent together and attachment. This suggests that it is the quality of caregiving rather than the quantity of it. This supports Bowlby’s theory because it goes against the Learning theory as the learning theory suggests that food is the main key to developing an
Grossman and Grossman (1991) researched infant-father attachment and found that there is a key role for the father’s in social development. Their aim was to see if the Strange Situation test (by Ainsworth et al (1978)) can be used to explore attachment types in German infants and to explore the relationship between maternal sensitivity and attachment type. They used 49 German families using the Strange Situation and measure attachment type and controlled and naturalistic observation. Most infants were insecurely attached (anxious avoidant) rather than securely attached. If the mothers were sensitive to their child’s needs, the child was more likely to have a secure attachment. Over 10 years, 80% of children kept the same attachment type. Secure children enjoyed close friendships later in childhood; anxious avoidant children reported having no or few