Explanations of Attachment Flashcards
Who proposed that attachment can be explained through learning theory and when?
Dollard and Miller in 1950
Explain classical conditioning in regards to attachment.
neutral stimulus - mother
unconditioned stimulus - food
unconditioned response - pleasure
conditioned stimulus - mother
conditioned response - pleasure
Explain operant conditioning in regards to attachment.
- babies cry which leads to a response from the caregiver, such as feeding, and as long as the correct response is given this behaviour is reinforced because the baby then directs crying for comfort behaviours towards the caregiver who responds with comforting ‘social suppressor’ behaviour.
- this type of reinforcement is two-way because at the same time the baby is being reinforced for crying, the caregiver recieves negative reinforcement because the crying stops.
- this mutual reinforcement strengthens the attachment
Define a drive.
anything that motivates a behaviour
Explain attachment as a secondary drive.
Hunger can be thought of as a primary drive because it’s an inate, biological motivator that motivates us to eat to reduce the hunger drive. Sears suggested that the primary drive may be generalised to caregivers because they provide the food, therefore making attachment a secondary drive, learned through the association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive.
Outline the strengths of learning theory as an explanation of attachment.
- Elements of conditioning could be involved in some aspects of attachment. Whilst it seems unlikely that food plays a central role in attachment, it’s plausible that conditioning still might, eg. a baby may associate feeling warm and comfortable with a particular adult and this may play a part in who they choose as their primary attachment figure. This means that the learning theory may still be useful in understanding the development of attachments.
- Hay and Vespo (1988) suggested that parents teach their children to love them by demonstarting attachment behaviours. Parents also reinforce loving behaviour by showing approval when babies display their own attachment behaviours. This social learning perspective has the extra advantage that it is based around 2-way interactions so fits better with the importance of reciprocity.
Outline the limitations of learning theory as an explanation for attachment.
- There is a lack of support from studies conducted on animals. Lorenz’s geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw regardless of whether the object was associated with food or not. Harlow’s monkeys also prefered the soft mother rather than the wire mother, regardless of which one was providing food. This shows that factors other than association with food are important in the formation of attachments.
- There is also a lack of support from studies conducted on human babies. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that babies tended to form their main attachment to their mother, regardless of whether she was the one who usually fed them or not. Isabella (1989) also found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment. Both of these factors are unrelated to feeding which again suggests that food is not the main factor in the formation of human attachments.
What was Bowlby’s explanation of attachment?
Monotropic theory
What is the monotropic theory of attachment?
The idea that one particular attachment is different from all others and of central importance to the child’s development. This person was usually the mother but Bowlby made it evry clear that it didn’t need to be a biological mother. He believed the more time a baby spent with it’s primary attachment figure the better, and he came up with two laws to clarify this.
What were Bowlby’s two laws?
The law of continuity and the law of accumulated seperation
What is the law of continuity?
states that the more constant and predicatble a child’s care is, the better the qualitybof their attachment
What is the law of accumulated seperation?
states that the effects of every seperation from the mother adds up ‘and the safest does is therefore a zero dose’ (Bowlby 1975)
Define social releasers.
Inate ‘cute’ behaviours like smiling and cooing that encourage attention from adults. Their purpose is to activate adult social interaction and so make an adult attach to a baby.
What is the critical period?
The time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all. Bowlby proposed that this was around 6 months.
What is the sensitive period?
Bowlby viewed the critical period as more of a sensitive period, with the child being maximally sensitive at 6 months old and this possibly extending to the age of 2. He said that if a child doesn’t form an attachment by this time then they will find it much hardere to form one later on in life.
What is the internal working model?
When a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver. It acts as a model for how relationships should be, this means it can affect the child’s ability to be a parent themselves later in life because people tend to base their parenting style off how they were parented.
Outline the strengths of the monotropic theory as an explanation of attachment.
- There is evidence from Brazelton supporting the role of social releasers. He observed babies trigger interactions with adults using these social releasers. He then instructed the primary caregiver to ignore the baby’s social releasers and the babies became increasingly distressed. This illustrates the role of social releasers in emotional development and suggests that they are important in the process of attachment development.
- There is also support for the internal working model. Bailey (2007) assesssed attachment relationships in 99 mothers and their 1-year-old babies. She measured the mother’s attachment to their own primary attachment figure and then assessed the attachment quality of the babies. She found thatmothers with poor attachment to their own parents were more likely to have poorly attached babies. This supports Bowlby’s idea that mothers ability to form attachments to their own babies is influenced by their own internal working model.
Outline the limitations of the monotropic theory as an explanation of attachment.
- THe concept of monotropy lacks validity. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that although most babies did attach to one person at first, a significant minority formed multiple attachments at the same time. Also, although the first attachment does appear to have a particulary strong influence on later behaviour, this may mean it is stronger, not necessarily different in quality to the child’s other attachments. This means that Bowlby may be incorrect that there is a unique quality and importance to a child’s primary attachment
- The theory also sparks concerns amongst feminists because the laws of continuity and accumulated seperation suggest that mothers who work may negatively affect their child’s emotional development. Burman (1994) points out that this belief sets up mothers to take the blame for anything that goes wrong with the child in the future and gives people an excuse to restrict mothers activities.
