Outline and evaluate the evolutionary theory of attachment
Attachment is a deep and enduring bond that emotionally connects one person to another, however this attachment does not necessarily have to be shared as one person may have an attachment with an individual which is not reciprocated. Such attachments are characterized by specific behaviours in children such as seeking to be in the attachment figure’s company when upset or distressed.
The evolutionary theory of attachment originates with the work of John Bowlby whom was inspired by the work of renowned ethologist Konrad Lorenz into studying animal attachment to their mothers; in an experiment Lorenz tested both the idea that goslings latch onto the first animate object they see within the first few hours, and how this would affect them throughout the course of their lives. To do so Lorenz divided a groups of unhatched goslings into two, the conditions of this research were that once hatched one group would be allowed to interact with their mother upon hatching but the other would be hatched directly into an incubator.
The results of this research as well as his own experience as a child psychiatrist in London led him to investigate the importance of a child’s, specifically infants, relationship with its mother and other peers in terms of both their social and emotional cognitive development and in 1952 working alongside James Robertson Bowlby observed that young children experienced severe distress when separated from their mothers. His final theory came to be one of the most important ideas available in relation to attachment; this consisted of five key tenants: the idea of adaptive attachment, social releasers, monotropy, the ‘critical’ or ‘sensitive’ period and lastly the internal working model.
The first of these, adaptive attachment, states that this attachment pertains to infants creating attachments to caregivers when seeking comfort, safety, warmth etc. which is supported by Darwin’s general theory, as if not beneficial to survival the characteristic
The evolutionary theory of attachment originates with the work of John Bowlby whom was inspired by the work of renowned ethologist Konrad Lorenz into studying animal attachment to their mothers; in an experiment Lorenz tested both the idea that goslings latch onto the first animate object they see within the first few hours, and how this would affect them throughout the course of their lives. To do so Lorenz divided a groups of unhatched goslings into two, the conditions of this research were that once hatched one group would be allowed to interact with their mother upon hatching but the other would be hatched directly into an incubator.
The results of this research as well as his own experience as a child psychiatrist in London led him to investigate the importance of a child’s, specifically infants, relationship with its mother and other peers in terms of both their social and emotional cognitive development and in 1952 working alongside James Robertson Bowlby observed that young children experienced severe distress when separated from their mothers. His final theory came to be one of the most important ideas available in relation to attachment; this consisted of five key tenants: the idea of adaptive attachment, social releasers, monotropy, the ‘critical’ or ‘sensitive’ period and lastly the internal working model.
The first of these, adaptive attachment, states that this attachment pertains to infants creating attachments to caregivers when seeking comfort, safety, warmth etc. which is supported by Darwin’s general theory, as if not beneficial to survival the characteristic