L5 - Learning Theory of Attachment

Question 1

Two Types of Conditioning

Answer 1

Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning

Question 2

Classical Conditioning

Answer 2

• An infant is born with certain reflex responses, e.g. the stimulus of food is an unconditioned stimulus and it produces the reflex of pleasure, an unconditioned response.
• The person providing food is a neutral stimulus but over time they become associated with the pleasure the baby feels. This person becomes a conditioned stimulus that produces pleasure as a conditioned response.

Question 3

Operant Conditioning

Answer 3

• This strengthens attachment. The baby receives positive reinforcement for crying when they are hungry, as the caregiver feeds them.
• The caregiver receives negative reinforcement for feeding their baby when they cry as feeding the baby makes the crying stop.

Question 4

Define positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement

Answer 4

P) When behaviour produces a pleasant consequence

N) When behaviour removes something unpleasant

Question 5

+ Learning theory is plausible and scientific because…

Answer 5

Its likely that association between the provision of needs and the person providing those needs can lead to strong attachments

Question 6

• Harlow (1959)

Answer 6

• Separated Rhesus monkeys from birth, with half receiving milk from a wire mesh surrogate mother, and the other half from one made of comfortables soft cloth.
• All the monkeys clung to the soft cloth mother especially when scared by another stimulus, suggesting that comfort is more important than food when determining whom a baby will attach to.

Question 7

• Schaffer and Emerson

Answer 7

• They discovered that babies often attach to people who play with them, rather than people who feed them.
• In 39% of cases, babies were attached to someone other than their mother, who fed them.

Question 8

• What does this theory not explain?

Answer 8

It explains how attachments form but not why. According to Bowlby’s theory of attachment, infants form an attachment to their caregiver to ensure they are protected.

Question 9

• Why is this theory ‘environmentally reductionist’?

Answer 9

• As is explains a complex human behaviour in an overly simplistic way. The infant caregiver relationship is a very varied, sophisticated and complicated behaviour, and there are many types of this attachment.

Question 10

Why is the learning theory ‘environmentally deterministic’?

Answer 10

Because it states that early learning determines later attachment behaviours.