2.5. Learning Theory

Question 1

What does it propose?

Answer 1

Behaviour is learned rather than innate

Question 2

How is behaviour learned?

Answer 2

Through classical or operant conditioning

Question 3

What is cupboard love?

Answer 3

The belief that children learn to love whoever feeds them

Question 4

Classical conditioning- Pavlov

Answer 4

• Learn through association
• Pavlov researched the salivation reflex in dogs recording how much they salivated when they were fed.
• Started to notice they salivated before being fed -> as soon as they heard the door open- signalling the arrival of food
• They associated the sound of the door with food - they had learned a new stimulus response

Question 5

Classical conditioning and attachment:

Answer 5

• Person who feeds the infant becomes associated with food.
• The feeder eventually produces the pleasure associated with food.
• Pleasure now becomes a conditioned response.
• This association between an individual and a sense of pleasure in the attachment bond.

Question 6

Operant conditioning - Skinner

Answer 6

• Learning occurs when we are rewarded for doing something - this can be anything such as money or praise
• Each time you do something and it results in a pleasant consequence (reinforced)
• More probable to repeat behaviour -> alternating punish means less likely to repeat

Question 7

Example of operant conditioning in attachment

Answer 7

Baby performs action: cries -» babies receives reward which relieves hunger

Question 8

What did Dollard and Miller suggest?

Answer 8

• Suggested hungry infants feel uncomfortable and this creates a drive to reduce discomfort.
• When fed, the drive is reduced and this produces pleasure
• Food becomes a primary reinforcer
• The person supplying the food is associated with avoiding discomfort and becomes a secondary reinforcer and source of reward in own right.
• Attachment occurs as child seeks the person who can supply the reward.

Question 9

Strength: some elements of conditioning could still be involved.

Answer 9

• Whilst it’s unlikely food is central to attachment, conditioning may still play some role.
• e.g. a baby’s choice of primary attachment figure may be determined by the fact that a caregiver becomes associated with warmth and comfort.
• This means that conditioning could still be important in choice of attachment figures, though not the process of attachment formation.
• However, this ignores the fact that babies take a very active role in the interactions that produce attachment. For example, they initiate interactions. This suggests that learning that learning theory may be inappropriate in explaining any aspect of attachment.

Question 10

Weakness: other factors are important to attachment formation

Answer 10

• Lorenz’s geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw and Harlow’s monkeys attached to a soft surrogate in preference to a wire one without milk.
• In both studies, imprinting/ attachment didn’t occur as a result of feeding.
• Shows other factors are important.

Question 11

Weakness: babies feeding

Answer 11

• Schaffer and Emerson showed that for many babies, their main attachment was not to the person who fed them
• Isabella et al found that interactional synchrony predicted attachment quality
• Suggests that factors are more important in attachment formation than feeding.