Explanation Of Attachments

Question 1

What are the explanations for attachment

Answer 1

1. Learning theory
2. Bowlby’s Monotropic theory

Question 2

Who suggested attachment can be explained by learning theory?

Answer 2

Learning theorists Dollard and Miller

Question 3

What is their approach sometimes called?

Answer 3

‘Cupboard Love’

Question 4

Why is their approach known as ‘Cupboard love’?

Answer 4

Because it emphasises the importance of the attachment figure as a provider of food. (Children learn to love whoever feeds them)

Question 5

How does operant conditioning explain why babies cry for comfort?

Question 6

What does learning theory involve?

Answer 6

Used classical conditioning and operant conditioning to explain attachment

Question 7

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 7

learning to associate two stimuli together so that we begin to respond
to one in the same way we already respond to the other / learning by association

Question 8

Give an example of classical conditioning

Answer 8

The child learns to associate the carer with food.
- Food is an unconditioned stimulus which is associated with pleasure.
- At the start the carer is a neutral stimulus (a stimulus that produces no response)
- over time, when the carer regularly feeds the child, he/she becomes associated with food and becomes conditioned stimulus which evokes pleasure.
THIS IS HOW ATTACHMENT DEVELOPS

Question 9

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 9

learning to repeat a behaviour or not depending on its consequences,
If a behaviour produces a pleasant consequence, the behaviour is likely to be repeated again. This behaviour has been reinforced. If a behaviour produces an unpleasant consequence it is less likely to be repeated.

Question 10

How does operant conditioning explain why babies cry for comfort?

Answer 10

• crying leads to a response from the caregiver e.g. feeding
• as long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced
• the baby then directs crying for comfort towards the caregiver who responds with comforting ‘social suppressor’ behaviour

Question 11

How is this reinforcement a 2 way process?

Answer 11

At the same time as the baby is reinforced for crying, the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops (removal of an unpleasant stimulus). This interplay of mutual reinforcement strengthens an attachment.

Question 12

Give an example of operant conditioning

Answer 12

Most carers dislike hearing a baby cry so the cessation of crying is a negative reinforcer encouraging the carer to behave in such a way that the child stops crying.

Smiling by the child is very rewarding and is therefore a positive reinforcer so the carer behaves in such a way as to evoke smiling. In these ways, an attachment bond is formed between carer and child.

Question 13

What did Sears et al suggest?

Answer 13

as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them. Attachment is thus a secondary
drive learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive.

Question 14

What perspective does Bowlby take?

Answer 14

An evolutionary perspective

Question 15

What does Bowlby argue?

Answer 15

He argues that children are born with an innate tendency to form attachments with their parents in order to increase the chances of survival.

Question 16

What key terms does Bowlby talk about?

Answer 16

Monotropy
Social releasers
Critical / sensitive period
Internal working model

Question 17

Why is Bowlby’s theory described as monotropic?

Answer 17

He placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver and this attachment is different and more important than the others. He called this person the ‘mother’

Question 18

According to Bowlby, why is the more time spent with the primary attachment figure the better?

Answer 18

Law of continuity
Law of accumulated separation

Question 19

What does the Law of continuity state?

Answer 19

The more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment

Question 20

What does the Law of accumulated separation state?

Answer 20

The effects of every separation from the mother add up ‘and the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’

Question 21

What are social releasers?

Answer 21

A set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours that babies are born with like smiling, cooing and gripping that encourage attention from adults. Their purpose is to activate adult social interaction and so make an adult attach to the baby. Adults are biologically programmed to find these behaviours cute or distressing to activate attachment. Bowlby recognised attachment was a reciprocal process where both mother and baby are ‘hard-wired’ to become attached.

Question 22

What is the critical/sensitive period?

Answer 22

A child is maximally sensitive at 6 months and this may extend to the age of 2. If an attachment isn’t formed in this time, a child will find it much harder to form one later.