Bowlby's Theory

Outline and evaluate Bowlby’s evolution theory as an explanation of attachment.

Attachment is the emotional and behavioural bond between one individual and another. Bowlby’s theory suggests that children are born into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others because it will help them to survive. He believes that attachments occur during a critical period (3-6 months) or not at all and that attachments play a role in later development. He also believes that these attachments formed play a role in later development. Sroufe et al’s study expands on Bowlby’s theory as they followed the lives of 200+ children from birth to examine if/how your early life affects adulthood. Their findings from the investigation, which is still going on today, was that their actions were affected by the attachments and behaviours they experienced from their early life. This is showing that Bowlby’s theory was correct. Harlow’s experiment on the monkeys is another study that expands on Bowlby’s theory. When they looked at the monkeys that were experimented on as babies to see how they were as adults, looking especially at how they were with their own children, it was noticed that they showed signs of autism and were awfully bad parents thus once again showing that Bowlby was correct about how attachments formed in the early life affect the way individuals act as adults. However there are some theories that suggest Bowlby’s theory was incorrect. Kagan came up with the hypothesis that there are 3 types of personality that we are born with and this personality is what affects our later life rather than the attachments. The 3 types of personalities that he believed in were easy going, aggressive and slow to warm and he believes that no matter what our natural surroundings are, we will always go back to the personality we had as a baby. Bokhurst et al did a study that furthered Kagan’s hypothesis and once again, suggested that Bowlby’s theory of attachments is...