L5-L8 Flashcards
What is the learning theory of attachment?
How do they learn this?
Learning theory - all behaviour is learner rather than being innate or inherited from parents
Learn this through:
- classical conditioning
- operant conditioning
Describe classical conditioning - learning theory of attachment
Classical conditioning: this is how attachment bond develops + reason for children feeling pleasure in caregiver’s presence
Infant is born with certain reflex responses:
- unconditioned stimulus = stimulus of food
- unconditioned response = reflex of pleasure
- person becomes conditioned stimulus that produces pleasure as a conditioned response
Describe operant conditioning - learning theory of attachment
Operant conditioning strengthens attachment:
- baby receives positive reinforcement (behaviour produces a pleasant consequence) e.g. for crying when they’re hungry as caregiver feeds them
- caregiver receives negative reinforcement (behaviour removes something unpleasant) e.g. for feeding their baby when they cry as feeding makes the baby stop crying
What are the ads of the learning theory?
Learning theory is plausible + scientific = founded in established theory so it’s likely that associating between provision of needs + person providing those needs can lead to strong attachment
What are the disads of learning theory?
- Harlow (1959) separated infant Rhesus monkeys from their mothers + put them in cages = Milk was provided either by wire mesh “surrogate mother” or by soft cloth
- monkeys clung to soft cloth “mother”, especially when scared by aversive stimulus even if it didn’t provide milk = suggests comfort is more important than food in determining who baby will attach to
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that food is not necessary for attachment to form = discovered that babies are often attached to people who play w/ them rather than feed them —> 39% of cases, baby was attached to someone else even though the mother was the one that fed
- theory explains HOW attachments form, not WHY they form = according to Bowlby’s theory of attachment, infants form an attachment to their caregiver to ensure they’re protected
- Learning theory is environmentally reductionist as it explains a complex human behaviour in an overly simplistic way = infant and caregiver relationship is a very varied, sophisticated and complicated behaviour, and there are many different types of infant andcaregiver attachment —> it is very unlikely that attachment is merely the result of the caregiver providing the infant with food.
- Learning theory is environmentally deterministic because it states that early learning determines later attachment behaviours.
What is Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory?
Why attachments form
Why attachments form:
- fundamental principle of Bowlby’s theory is that attachment between infants and their caregivers is an instinct that has evolved because it increases the chances of both the babies’ survival and the parents’ passing on their genes = adaptive
- Infants who are attached to their caregiver will stay close to them and so are well protected and will survive.
- Parents who are attached to their children will ensure they are well cared for and so survive, meaning that they will have successfully passed on their genes.
What is Bowlby’s Monotropic theory?
How attachments form
- infants have innate drive to become attached to adult = usually have critical period in which they must occur or they never will
- critical period for attachment = 2 years of age
- no opportunity for this means they’ll have difficulty forming attachments later on
- he proposed that attachment is determined by the caregiver’s sensitivity = infants who are the most strongly attached tend to have a caregiver who is responsive, cooperative + more accessible than less closely attached infants
- social releasers are ijprktwnr to ensure attachment develops = include smiling, crying = behaviours that elicit caregivers = babies display to encourage caregivers to look after them
- Babies will have special emotional bond = MONOTROPY = often associated with biological mother but not always
- SECONDARY ATTACHMENTS = provide an important emotional safety net + vital for healthy development
What are the consequences of attachment?
Bowlby’s theory of attachment
- important of monotropy = infant uses this relationship to form a mental view of relationships (INTERNAL WORKING MODEL)
- secure relationships in childhood ensure positive internal working model + current and future relationships will be positive and secure
- continuity hypothesis proposes that individuals who’s re securely attached in infancy continue to be socially + emotionally competent = secure childhood leads if positive internal working model
What are the disads of Bowlby’s Monotropic theory?
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) suggest that multiple attachments are more common in babies than monotropy = found that by 18 months, only 13% of infants have only one person they were attached to
- it is impossible to test Bowlby’s argument that attachment has persisted in the same form throughoutour evolutionary history, making it unscientific
- Tizard and Hodges (1989) found that children who had never formed any attachments by the age of four, and were then adopted, could still form attachments to their new adopted parents. This goes against the idea of a critical periodbefore two years of age during which an attachment must form or it never will
- Feminists like Erica Burman have pointed out that the idea of monotropy is socially sensitive.It places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in their child’s life. It also puts pressure on mothers to stay at home and give up their careers. Bowlby also underestimated the role of the father –he saw father’s role as primarily economic. This is an outdated sexist view, manyfamilies view both parents as equally responsible for childcare, and in many families the father is the primary caregiver
- Kegan (1984) disagreed with Bowlby about the quality of an infant’s attachment being determined by the caregiver’s sensitivity.He explained infant’s attachments to their caregivers in terms of their innate temperament.According to his theory some infants are better suited to forming attachments then others due to their innate characteristics. Rovine (1987) found that infants who had been judged to have signs of behaviouralinstability between one and three days old were later more likely to have an insecure attachment
What is Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
Bowlby (1953) proposes that children who suffer from prolonged emotional deprivation (absence of primary attachment figure) will have long term intellectual (lower IQ), social (delinquency) + emotional (AFFECTIONLESS PSYCHOPATHY) difficulties + even mental health issues (e.g. depression)
- continuity hypothesis = effects are irreversible + continue into adulthood due to lack of internal working model, even lead to inability to be a good parents
- occur if seperation occurs before child is 2.5 years old (critical period) BUT there is risk up to 5 years old (sensitive period) and there’s no substitute mother-figure available
What was Bowlby’s (1944) experiment?
- analysed the case histories of a number of his patients in the Guidance Clinic, London where he worked
- all children = emotionally maladjusted
- 88 of these children (44 thieves - caught stealing + 44 - control group)
- suggested 14 were emotionless psychopaths (lacked affection, shame and responsibility)
What were the findings of Bowlby’s (1944) experiment?
- affectionless psychopaths had experienced frequent early seperations from their mothers w/ only 5/30 thieves not classed as affectionless psychopaths
- none of the control group had experienced early seperations
What are the ads of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
- Before Bowlby’s (1953) theory, hospitals would not allow parents to visit their children during hospital stays (or only allow infrequent visits) = had damaging effects on child –> nowadays parents are actively encouraged to stay in hopsital with children
- Spitz (1945) examined children raised in a poor quality orphanage in South America = members of staff overworked, undertrained and rarely gave children any attention or affection - displayed anaclitic depression
- Skodak and SKeeles (1949) found that children placed institutions that only looked after them physically scored poorly on intelligence tests. However, when the same children were transferred to a different institution which gave the children emotional care the IQ scores improved by almost 30 points.
what are the disads of Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation?
-The effects of maternal deprivation have been shown to be reversible. Children who had never formed attachmentsand were adopted after the age of four were still able to form attachments to their new parents (Tizard et al. 1989)
. -Bowlby did not really distinguish between deprivation (when the attachment figure is lost) and privation(when the child has never formed an attachment). It could be the latter that causes the extreme negative effects observed in some studies.
what is institutional care?
institutional careis when a child’s living arrangements are outside of the family. Some children are raised in institutions, such as children’s homes, hostels, hospitals etc.
Children raised in institutions can adopt the rules and norms of the institution, which could impair functioning and lead to a loss of personal identity(deindividuation).
