Evolutionary Theory of Attachments
Evolutionary Theory of Attachment
The evolutionary explanation of attachments was first developed by Bowlby. He said that an attachment is biological and crucial for survival as it ensures the infant is cared for due to the reciprocal nature of attachment. Bowlby also said that both infants and carers are innately programmed with the ability to make attachments and that Bowlby believes in monotropy, the belief that a child can only create an attachment with one primary caregiver only and this is usually the mother. Bowlby also says that attachments are linked to the internal working model. This is a picture that we build in our head of what we expect an attachment to be like due to the attachments we make as a child, a bit like a schema.
Bowlby said that attachments have to occur within the ‘critical period or development’ (6 months – 2 ½ years). If this fails then the child with grow up with psychological difficulties and the inability to create good, stable attachments in the future and that creating attachments in this critical period with help to avoid these future psychological problems. The continuity hypothesis suggests that constant sensitive care in needed for healthy psychological development to occur and without this constant care from a young age then the child with grow up with an unhealthy psychological mind. This supports the idea that early attachments are therefore linked to later development in a child’s life.
Lorenz supports Bowlby’s evolutionary theory by conducting an experiment on geese. It was discovered that geese imprint on the first thing that they see after birth and accept this as the mother figure that they form an attachment with. Lorenz bred geese and made himself the first thing he saw when they hatched from their eggs to try and prove the theory that animals make attachments after birth. The evolutionary value of this is that the infant is more likely to be safe from predators and be fed which increases
The evolutionary explanation of attachments was first developed by Bowlby. He said that an attachment is biological and crucial for survival as it ensures the infant is cared for due to the reciprocal nature of attachment. Bowlby also said that both infants and carers are innately programmed with the ability to make attachments and that Bowlby believes in monotropy, the belief that a child can only create an attachment with one primary caregiver only and this is usually the mother. Bowlby also says that attachments are linked to the internal working model. This is a picture that we build in our head of what we expect an attachment to be like due to the attachments we make as a child, a bit like a schema.
Bowlby said that attachments have to occur within the ‘critical period or development’ (6 months – 2 ½ years). If this fails then the child with grow up with psychological difficulties and the inability to create good, stable attachments in the future and that creating attachments in this critical period with help to avoid these future psychological problems. The continuity hypothesis suggests that constant sensitive care in needed for healthy psychological development to occur and without this constant care from a young age then the child with grow up with an unhealthy psychological mind. This supports the idea that early attachments are therefore linked to later development in a child’s life.
Lorenz supports Bowlby’s evolutionary theory by conducting an experiment on geese. It was discovered that geese imprint on the first thing that they see after birth and accept this as the mother figure that they form an attachment with. Lorenz bred geese and made himself the first thing he saw when they hatched from their eggs to try and prove the theory that animals make attachments after birth. The evolutionary value of this is that the infant is more likely to be safe from predators and be fed which increases