EXPLANATIONS OF ATTACHMENT: LEARNING THEORY

Question 1

this learning theory is also known as what

Answer 1

• cupboard love theory
• suggests that the infant becomes attached to a caregiver because it ‘learns’ that the caregiver will meet their physiological (nutritional) needs.

Question 2

classical conditioning applied to human attachment

Answer 2

Food -> pleasure (happy baby)
(UCS) -> (UCR)

Caregiver -> no response (neutral)
(NS)

Caregiver + food -> pleasure
(NS + UCS) -> (UCR)

Caregiver -> pleasure
(CS) -> (CR)
After several pairings, the infant learns to attach to a primary caregiver.

Question 3

opposing research

Answer 3

• One limitation of the learning theory of attachment is that there is opposing research. Animal studies have shown that young animals do not attach on the basis of food.
• For example, Harlow’s study demonstrated ‘contact comfort’ was more important to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour- which goes against cupboard love theory.
• This is a disadvantage as it casts doubt on the validity of the theory as there is an alternative explanation for attachment.
• However, the study was conducted on animals and can’t be applied to humans.
• Therefore there is limited generalisability within this study and thus we cannot make any conclusions based on this research.

Question 4

reductionist

Answer 4

• One limitation of the learning theory of attachment is that it’s reductionist. For example, Shaffer and Emmerson found that babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mothers even though other carers did most of the feeding.
• This shows that biological factors outweigh environmental factors,
  which goes against the suggestion that attachment is formed by those who feed the children.
• Therefore in this case nature overrides nurture going against the theory.
• Furthermore, even research from humanstudies shows that food isn’t the primary drive, it’s innate and not something we learn from associating food with the caregiver.
• This questions the validity of the theory

Question 5

better exp

Answer 5

• One limitation of the learning theory of attachment is that research into reciprocity and interactional synchrony better explains attachment.
• For example, Research into caregiver-infant interactions suggests that the quality of attachment is associated with developing good levels of reciprocity and interactional synchrony, with the best attachments forming with carers who are most sensitive to the baby’s signals.
• This highlights that food isn’t the only factor that impacts attachment- there are other factors thatcontribute to the formation of attachment.
• This is a disadvantage as the study focuses on attachment forming from a direct result of feeding and completely ignores the attachments formed by complex interactions (for example, reciprocal behaviour).
• Hence, this doesn’t allow us to gain a full insight into forming quality attachments

Question 6

One limitation of the learning theory of attachment is that there is a better alternative explanation which is a less reductionist theory.

Answer 6

• For example, Hay and Vespo put forward the social learning theory of attachment which suggests attachment is learnt through parents modelling the behaviours and rewarding attachment behaviours shown by the baby with approval.
• This means it doesn’t assume people are passive and just going to respond to stimuli, and considers the role of social and cognitive factors- all of
  which aid attachment.
• This is a more holistic explanation as it takes all factors into account unlike the cupboard love theory which does not consider all instances