The Adaptive Nature of Attachment: Bowlby's Evolutionary Theory

Introduction

Different approaches exist on the explanation of attachment. There is the evolutionary approach as posited by Bowlby. Evolution simply means change. Bowlby believes that an attachment is quite evolutionary in the sense that it can change with the environment in which an infant is brought. Therefore, individuals with right traits will survive. To this end, an attachment is simply adaptable and inborn, which is crucial in fields like psychology dissertation help. For example, in a harsh environment where it is survival for the fittest through the process of natural selection, an individual who sticks wholly with the mother will most likely survive.

Bowlby’s Evolutionary Approach

Bowlby believed that the desire, the urge and the need for an attachment is naturally in the genes of human beings and as such is genetic. Accordingly, an attachment has a way of eliciting or evoking caregiving and as such, an infant will become more attached to those people who timely respond to their needs. This is quite innate, as far as survival is concerned and this inborn trait is helpful as it gives the possibility that an infant will more likely survive.

As such, an attachment is behavioural collection that has evolved through evolution owing to its reproductive and survival importance. An infant naturally will evoke the aspect of demanding for care and they will be kept safe by being given food. These are called social releases, which will in turn unlock another inbuilt tendency in adults to respond and give the necessary care. These social releases motivate caregivers to respond in a way likely to resolve the need. To this end, those who respond to such acts of caregiving form an attachment with the infant. It is in such situations where an infant will most likely form a stronger bond in the name of an attachment with the mothers whose instincts are naturally programmed to protect their baby from any danger and ensure the baby grows to maturity through survival.

For the caregiver to respond to the need of an infant, Bowlby in his evolutionary approach suggests that the baby or infant must evoke social releases. This means that the baby will either evoke these releases physically, or behaviorally, for example, facial expression. This a physical release that mandates those responsible to act. The baby will also cry or smile. These are some kinds of behavioural aspects that also mandate the caregiver to respond and, in the process, the baby learns and adapts through forming an attachment with those who respond.

While at this, Bowlby believed that there is a critical period in the life of a baby within which they form an attachment with those responsible for giving care and here he believed that it must be between birth and three (3) years. Simply put, there is no point of delaying mothering until after the three years as this will denotes that the critical period to form an attachment is damaged and this will in turn damage the baby socially, intellectually and emotionally capable of not being reversed so easily.

Similar to this evolutionary approach as its subsidiary of monotropic bond which Bowlby defines as the tendency for young ones to develop a primary or initial attachment with the most important caregiver who in most circumstances will respond to their releases. This remains the most important attachment to an infant and perhaps unique from others. This primary attachment is the foundation of other attachments that will be developed later in the relationship and here is where mothers win owing to their ever-frequent being with the baby or infant. This was largely borrowed and adopted from Freud who believed that the most important bond or attachment arises from the mother-child relationship and this relationship influences other relationships in the future. It is here where the baby and the mother form internal working model internally which acts as a template for future relationship.

Critics for example Schaffer and Emerson(1964), heavily criticized the monotropic bond as espoused by Bowlby by suggesting that by the age of seven months, there are multiple bonds or attachments and as such there is no favorable attachment person in the life of infant and by eighteen months, there are multiple attachments pointing to the fact that there can never be a preferred figure in the life of a baby to form an attachment with. Lastly, it was their discovery as per their study that the bond or attachment with the mother is not the strongest as espoused by Bowlby.

There is also the psychoanalytic approach by Freud, which posits that an attachment is achieved when a caregiver gives oral pleasure and in the process of satisfying the inborn drives of a baby, a bond of love is created. According to him, feeding relationship is very important in creating an attachment since babies are born with an inborn desire to look for libido or simply pleasure. He believed that through feeding, which satisfies the baby’s libido, an attachment is formed. This approach has however been criticized on the basis that feeding the baby alone is not sufficient for strong attachments.

Lastly, there is also the behaviourist approach by Dollard and Miler, which is also called learning theory and here, infants learn that some individuals are allied to the feelings that evoke pleasure and reduce those feelings that elicit displeasure. For example, a baby feels hungry and starts to cry. The caregiver will come in give them milk and they become comfortable. The infants become more attached to such individuals associated with pleasure. Here, the overriding reason is that an infant is born blank and as such, the consequent attachment is learned and this is either learned classically or through operant conditioning. This approach has also been criticized on the findings that food is never the foundation of attachment and that most attachments are formed by those who mostly responded to their needs but not necessarily those who spent more time with them or fed them.

Conclusion

These three approaches; evolutionary, behaviourist and psychoanalytic are quite unique and distinct from one another as far as attachment is concerned. However, a lot has been borrowed from one another as evidenced by Bowlby adopting the Psychoanalytic approach in his evolutionary approach. An attachment thus remains a bond that impacts on the life of a baby in future depending on how the baby is brought up and by whom as regards their proximity in the baby’s life.

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