Bowlby’s Ethological Attachment Theory
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Bowlby’s Ethological Attachment Theory
Bowlby’s ethological theory is central to the psychoanalytic theories in the broader field of psychology. It manifests an ideal course of attachment development that children follow. Despite lacking substantiated facts on whether external factors affect the outlined children’s behavior, the four-stage ethological theory proposed by Bowlby manifests the nature of children’s progressive attachment to adults, as demonstrated in the actual stage-wise development in childhood, and which can be improved by future research in the field.
Summary of the Theory
Bowlby’s ethological theory states that children are born with the innate biological tendency to form attachments with close socialization agents such as parents, siblings, and caregivers, giving them an advantage of better survival. Four central tenets of attachment Bowlby uses to manifest attachment include safe heaven, proximity maintenance, a secure base, and separation distress (Halpern, 2018), which translates into four phases, namely, pre-attachment stage associated with simple reflexive actions. The second phase is attachment in-the-making (5 weeks to 8 months) whereby an infant recognizes that adults are different, and responds differently to their unique voices, tending to disregard strangers. Between 8 to 24 months, children undergo clear-cut attachment stage associated with separation anxiety that is evident when children engage in deliberate behavior to manifest their attachment with specific adults. Such actions include a display of stress and distress in the absence of familiar adults. From the age of 2 and onwards, the child displays reciprocal relationships significantly influenced by the onset of language. The child can predict a parent’s leaving and returning based on related actions (Walton & Rockoff, 2013). Attachment is, therefore, an enduring psychological connectedness through which all humans pass.
Critique of the Theory
Bowlby’s ethological theory is criticized for disregarding the role of other pertinent factors in interaction and socialization. Such include social class, personality differences, ethnicity, and gender. They shape interaction in different ways. Such variables are central in understanding children’s behavior and cannot be disregarded.
The theory tends to assume that attachment is the only natural force that influences children’s behavior. It fails to recognize that these additional factors are significant to shaping children’s behavior, just as the attachment itself. Therefore, the theory is not comprehensive enough to portray the holistic nature of children’s emotional and attachment development.
Application of the Theory to Real Life Example
There is a resonance between Bowlby’s stages of attachment and the phases of socialization that children undergo. For instance, signals such as cooing, crying, and gazing into adult faces in the pre-attachment stages are consistent with children’s observable behavior between birth and six weeks (Walton & Rockoff, 2013). Bowlby’s notion of attachment is, therefore, a manifestation of the actual course of child development.
Secondly, the theory coincides with other theories, such as psychoanalytic theories that offer stage-wise development. For instance, children’s behaviors at the oral stage of Sigmund Freud’s topographical model of psychoanalysis manifests similar responses to what Bowlby identifies (Fonagy et al., 2016). Therefore, the theory is practical and applicable in real-life situations.
Future Research Direction
Future research should focus on establishing the most underlying factors to child development and attachment. There is a need for a specific focus on nature versus nurture controversy to develop the most dominant force influencing children’s behavior. Such an inquiry will contribute immensely to understanding the exact contribution of attachment theories to psychoanalysis.
Scholars should also focus on the role of attachment theory in some unusual adult behaviors. Specifically, experts should investigate whether childhood attachment processes and inconsistencies lead to some adverse actions in adulthood. Parents and caregivers will find the need to modify their interactions with children as a deliberate strategy to enhance relationships in adulthood.
Conclusion
Bowlby’s ethological theory is portrayed as basic psychoanalytic processes that determine children’s behavior towards adults with differing familiarity levels. However, the theorist’s conceptualization of the notion of attachment is not considerate of other contributors to a child’s personality. Nonetheless, its resonance with Freudian psychoanalytic theory and the manifestation of the behaviors in real life validates Bowlby’s proposition. There is a need for future research to identify whether attachment behaviors that children display are wholly inborn or whether the environment triggers some of them. Additionally, researchers should attempt to link childhood processes to future practices.
References
Fonagy, P., Luyten, P., Allison, E., & Campbell, C. (2018). Reconciling psychoanalytic ideas with attachment theory. Guilford Press. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1468808/
Halpern, J. (2018). Attachment and Psychoanalysis: Theory, Research, and Clinical Implications, by Morris N. Eagle. Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, 24(1). https://ww.ecoo.org/index.php/cjp-rcp/article/download/518/190
Walton, G. M., & Rockoff, H. (2013). History of the American economy. Cengage Learning. 12th Edition