Evaluation of Bowlby’s theory of attachment

Bowlby (1944) Showed that maternal deprivation increases the likelihood of developing an emotionless psychopathic personality. Maternal deprivation also leads to increased incidence of criminal behaviour.

BUT…. Name one problem with this study…..

Harlow (1959) Studied monkey’s responses to frightening stimuli. The monkeys ran to the ‘cloth mother’ rather than the ‘wire mother’ who fed it. This supports the idea that attachments are more complex than just providing food.

Lorenz (1952) Studied imprinting in birds and found that in must occur in a ‘critical period.’ Supports Bowlby’s idea of a sensitive period for attachments to form.

But…… These two studies are conducted on animals and therefore can’t be generalised to humans!

Brazleton et al. (1975) Support existence of social releasers and the importance of parenting responses. They noted that mothers and babies took turns in beginning interactions and that both imitated each other’s movements. They called this interactional synchrony. In an experiment they asked mothers ignore the babies social releasers.

Brazleton et al. (1975) They found that the babies quickly became distressed. Some even curled up and became motionless, exhibiting signs of depression. This supports Bowlby’s ideas about social releasers and the importance of responding to them.

Bailey et al. (2007) They tested the idea of the internal working model. They aimed to see if patterns of attachment are passed from one generation to the next. They interviewed 99 teenage mothers with one-year-old babies about their attachment to their own mothers. They also observed the attachment behaviours of their babies.

Bailey et al. (2007) Those mothers who reported insecure attachments to their own parents were much more likely to have children who were insecurely attached. This is also supported by the fact that many (but not all) victims of abuse also go on to abuse others. This also linked to the idea of memes.

The continuity hypothesis This is the idea that individuals who are securely attached in infancy continue to be socially and emotionally competent, whereas insecurely attached children have more difficulties. This supports the idea that one’s internal working model will influence their future relationships.

Hazan & Shaver (1987) Tested the continuity hypothesis. They printed a ‘love quiz’ in a newspaper and aimed to find out people’s early attachment experiences and about their later attitudes and experiences in love. They found that securely attached children went on to have happier, longer lasting and more trusting relationships.

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) Criticised the idea of monotropy. They suggested that children have multiple attachments with caregivers other than the mother. E.g. father, grandparents, siblings. Supports Harlow as they suggest attachments are not just made to those who feed them.

Lamb (1981) Believes that different attachments simply serve different purposes rather than being in a heirachy.

Spitz (1946) Studied institutionalised children and found that children deprived of their attachment figures became increasingly depressed over 3 months. Symptoms of depression included weight-loss, insomnia, illness and a lack of emotion. The children would not move or interact with their carers. It was suggested that this was because the carers were caring for their physical needs, but not their emotional needs.

Goldfarb (1955) Studied 15 children who had stayed in an institution before being fostered. He compared children who were fostered at 3 years old to children who were fostered at 6 years old. He found that children who were fostered later were less emotionally secure, intellectually developed and less mature in adolescence than children who were fostered earlier.

Strengths Bowlby drew on much research and therefore has lots of evidence. Much of this research (above) was based in real hospitals and institutions and was therefore ecologically valid. Bowlby’s work led to changes in hospital policies. Visiting hours were extended for parents and carers focussed on forming attachments with children.

Weaknesses There are methodological problems: many of the samples used in the evidence had small and selective samples. Studies that used animals cannot be generalised to humans. Much researched focused on broken attachments and this may not be representative of children with healthy attachments. Bowlby did not differentiate between deprivation and privation.