Attachment : Explainations Of Attachment Flashcards
What is learning theory explanation of attachment?
The learning theory explanation of attachment explains how infants learn to become attached to their primary caregiver through the process of either classical conditioning or operant conditioning.
- It is sometimes referred to as the ‘cupboard love’ theory because the main principles of this explanation for attachment focuses on food. In a nutshell, it is thought that infants will form an attachment to whoever feeds them.
What is Classical Conditioning?
Classical conditioning is a process of learning by associating two stimuli together to condition (learn) a response
How can classical conditioning can be applied to human attachment?
- Before conditioning, food is an unconditioned stimulus which produces an unconditioned response (reflex) in the child – relief from hunger/pleasure.
- Before conditioning, the caregiver is a neutral stimulus, who produces no conditioned response at all from the child.
- During conditioning, the child associates the caregiver who feeds them (the neutral stimulus) with the food (the unconditioned stimulus).
- Through many repeated pairing, the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus who is associated with the pleasure from feeding. This results in the caregiver eliciting a conditioned response (relief from hunger) from the child and the formation of an attachment
What is Operant Conditioning?
Skinner (1938) was the first psychologist to study operant conditioning and show that behaviour in non-human animals could be learned through consequences (reward or punishment). When a behaviour is rewarded (through positive or negative reinforcement) it is repeated and conversely when it is punished the behaviour stops. Dollard and Miller (1950) applied the principles of reward and reinforcement to explain human attachment between a caregiver and an infant
What is Positive and Negative reinforcement?
When the caregiver provides food, a feeling of pleasure is produced for the infant which is rewarding and this is called positive reinforcement. Therefore, the behaviour which elicited the reward, i.e. crying, will be repeated.
This reinforcement is a reciprocal process since the caregiver also experiences a reward in the form of negative reinforcement when the infant stops crying, so they too will repeat the caregiving behaviour again in the future.
What is a primary drive?
Hunger is called the primary drive and the food is termed the primary reinforcer. The caregiver who provided it is called the secondary reinforcer. Attachment, called the secondary drive, will occur because the infant will seek the person who can supply the reward, i.e. the caregiver.
What is an evaluation of Learning Theory (part 1)
Learning theory is undermined by research by Harlow. He found that baby rhesus monkeys spent more time with a soft towelling monkey which provided no food, in comparison to a wire monkey that provided food. This shows that baby monkeys do not form attachments based on presence of food alone and prefer contact comfort. These findings go against the learning theory ‘cupboard love’ explanation of attachment and suggest alternative processes may have been ignored. This counter-argument is further supported by Schaffer and Emmerson’s research which demonstrated that infants formed attachments to their mothers despite often being fed by other carers.
- Learning theory is refuted by research from Lorenz. He found that upon hatching, baby geese followed the first moving object they saw. This process, known as imprinting, appears to be innate (as they would have no time to learn this behaviour). This shows that non-human animals demonstrate some inborn attachment behaviours to aid survival which goes against the idea that we ‘learn’ to attach to a caregiver because they feed us.
What was Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment?
Bowlby’s monotropic theory takes an evolutionary perspective. He argued that children are born with an innate tendency to form attachments with their parents in order to increase chances of survival. Five key terms from
What are explanation of ASCMI
A - Adaptive
S - Snap ( social release)
C - Chat (Critical Period)
M - Makes (Monotropy)
I - Images (Internal working model)
What is A (Adaptive)
Attachments are adaptive which means they give humans an advantage, making them more likely to survive. If an infant has an attachment, they are kept safe, given food and kept warm by their caregiver
What is SNAP (Social Releasers) ?
Infants possess inborn social releasers, which unlock an innate tendency in adults (in particular, mothers) to care for them. Social releasers are:
physical – the typical ‘baby face’ features that make babies appear cute such as big eyes and a button nose. behavioural – crying, cooing and smiling to get attention.
What is CHAt (Critical period)
Infants must form an attachment with their caregiver during the critical period which is between three and six months of age. However, Bowlby later acknowledged that infants could form an attachment after this period (up to three years of age); however, he maintained that the successful formation of an attachment would be increasingly difficult after this initial period. Bowlby said that if an attachment did not form during this time frame, the child would be damaged for life – socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically.
What is Makes (Monotropy)?
Bowlby believed that infants form one very special attachment with their primary caregiver, most frequently the mother. This special, intense attachment is called monotropy. If the mother is not available, the infant can bond with another ever-present adult, known as a mother substitute
What is IMAGES (Internal working model)
Through the monotropic attachment, the infant would form an internal working model. This is an internal template for future relationship expectations. If a child has a strong and healthy attachment with their primary attachment figure, then they will develop strong and healthy relationships, later in life. However, if the child has a negative relationship with their primary attachment figure, they will have negative social and romantic relationships in their later life
What is a stimulus
An event that causes a response
