Explanations of attachment (learning theory)

Question 1

Who proposed that caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by learning theory

Answer 1

• Dollard & Miller

Question 2

Define classical conditioning

Answer 2

• involves learning to associate two stimuli together

Question 3

In the case of attachment how does food serve as an unconditional stimuli

Answer 3

• being fed gives us pleasure- this is a unconditional response, a caregiver starts as a neutral stimulus, when they start to provide food continuously they are associated with food
  the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned one
• thus a conditional response is learnt- love

Question 4

Define operant conditioning

Answer 4

• involves learning to repeat a behaviour or not depending on its consequence

Question 5

how does operant conditioning relate to attachment

Answer 5

• It can explain why babies cry for comfort
• as long as the caregiver provides the right response, crying is reinforced
• the caregiver is negatively reinforced whilst the baby is positively reinforced, the mother comforts the baby and produces the correct response to the infants’ crying to stop the infant from crying

Question 6

What did Sears et al find

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Give a limitation of this theory

Answer 7

• counter-evidence from animal research/ Lorenz’s geese imprinted before they were fed
• Harlow’s monkeys attached to a soft surrogate in preference to a wire one that produced milk

Question 8

Give another limitation of the learning theory

Answer 8

• In Schaffer and Emerson’s study, it was shown that babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother even though other carers did most of the feeding
• shows that feeding is not the key element to attachment