ATTACHMENT-Social Learning theory Flashcards
What does social learning theory propose?
-Behaviour is learned rather than innate
-Learned through experiences and consequences
-Put forward by behaviourists
-Propes that children are born as blank slates or ‘tabula rasa’ and become who they are because of their experiences
-Behaviour is learnt through either classical or operant conditioning
What is operant conditioning?
Learning via reinforcement and consequences
What is classical conditioning?
Learning via association
Why does attachment form according to social learning theory?
The children will form attachments on the basis of primary care provision (feeding)
Who does a child form the strongest attachments to?
-Those who provide the most care
Who suggested the learning theory of attachment?
-Dollard and miller (1950)
What is cupboard love theory?
Attachment is based on the provision of food alone
Explain how attachments form through classical conditioning
-An unconditioned stimulus-response (food) produces an unconditioned response (salivation)
(Animals and people do not have to learn to feel hunger or to salivate at the sight/smell of food, this is known as a reflex action)
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Explain the cupboard love theory
-Classical conditioning
-Caregiver= neutral stimulus (NS)
-Food= unconditioned stimulus (US)
-baby’s response (e.g. smiling, crying, banging their high-chair tray) is the unconditioned response (UR)
-caregiver (NS) provides food (US), over time, they become associated with food- so NS is paired with US
-baby expects food when they see their caregiver, the baby emits their usual response (e.g. smiling, crying, banging their high-chair tray)
-The NS becomes the conditioned stimulus which is met with the conditioned response (CR)- baby crying/smiling when seeing the caregiver
Explain how attachments form through operant coditioning
-A baby is fed and feels pleasure (reward)
-The behaviour that led to the baby being fed is likely to be repeated by the behaviour e.g. crying
-The food reinforces the behaviour
-The caregiver associated with the food is also a reinforcer (mutual reinforcement)
-This is an example of negative reinforcement as the crying stops, the baby is escaping from something unpleasant
-Attachment to the caregiver occurs because the baby is seeking the reward (supplied by the person)
Give a strength (helpful explanation for some parts)
-Helps to partially explain why attachments form
-Infants form attachments based on how responsive and receptive a caregiver is to their needs eg. providing them with attention
-It could be argued that providing them with food is tending to their needs and therefore being responsive to them
-It emphasizes the role of association and reinforcement in learning, implying that consistent responsiveness and sensitivity to a child’s needs from a caregiver can facilitate attachment
-However there are factors wother than food which are needed for attachment such as contact comfort
Give a limitation (schaffer and emmerson)
-Findings from shaffer and emmersons 1964 resaerch suggests that attachments form due to resposiveness rather than food
-discovered that fewer than half of infants primarily bonded with the individual who typically fed them. This evidence challenges the theory’s assertion that feeding is the main driver of attachment formation.
-Interactional synchrony and reciprocity are considered the foundations for building an attachment between caregiver and infant
Give a limitation (animal studies)
-Research from Harlows rhesus monkeys suggested that they formed attachments to the mother hwo provided them with contact comfort (eg. the one covered in soft cloth) rather than the one who fed them, even if that was the mother they were assigned to and could only feed from
-Furthermore, Lorenz’s research involving goslings demonstrated imprinting on the first moving object they perceived. This seemingly instinctive behavior contradicts the learning theory’s proposition that attachment is a learned behavior, suggesting an innate predisposition instead.
-Although these animal studies have contridictory findings, neither suggest that attachment froms of the basis of food
-However there are questions surrounding the validity of extrapolating its findings to humans. Though behaviourists argue that human and animal learning processes are similar, this perspective is overly simplistic and disregards the complexity of human behaviour and so is therefore reductionist
Give a limitation (the critical period)
The learning theory of attachment does not explain why there is a critical period in most animals and humans,
after which infants cannot form attachment, or attachment might be more difficult. It does not explain why infants seem to go through the same stages at about the same age in the formation of attachment whether food is present or not
