Learning Theory Flashcards
What is the learning theory
Argues that attachment is learnt through classical and operant conditioning
What’s classical conditioning
Where an infant learns to associate the primary caregiver with food
The food is an unconditioned stimulus being fed produces feelings of pleasure
We don’t have to learn to enjoy food so it is an unconditioned response
Caregiver starts as a natural stimuli and the child doesn’t respond to the adult
However when the caregiver repeatedly provides food the child learns to associate this person with food and pleasure
So the neutral stimuli becomes conditioned as the child feels pleasured in front of the caregiver which is a conditioned response and attachment is formed
What is operant conditioning
-reinforcement which produces an attachment
For example crying leads to response from caregiver for example as long as caregiver feeds the baby the crying is positively reinforced. This means that crying is most likely to be repeated to have that response of comfort
The caregiver then receives a negative reinforcement because crying goes away. Therefore attachment is formed
What is negative and positive reinforcement
Negative - removing something negative for example crying
Positive - adding something positive eg getting fed by caregiver
What’s attachment as a secondary drive
Hunger can be thoughts of as a primary drive because its innate biological behaviour
Therefore , attachment is a secondary drive because we learn to make an association with primary caregiver to satisfy primary drive of hunger
What are the evaluation about learning theory
-provides valuable insight into how infants become attached to its caregiver and how food plays an important role in it. It can be used to provide advice to carers who would like to form attachment with their children eg fathers. It’s a strength as learning theory has helped increase attachment between babies and their caregivers
-however attachments are formed without feeding. Eg 39% of cases show us that the primary caregiver wasn’t the person who fed them and as well as this infants can attach to parents who abuse them.
-there’s contradictory experiments with Lorenz and Harlow showing that attachments form without the need for food for example imprinting and comfort. This decreases validity for this theory as there’s multiple variables.
-the theory and research is linked to nonhuman participants. However some experimenters say that principles of learning are the same in humans and animals. But psychologists believe that attachment in human is a lot more complex that is adaptive suggesting learning theory is oversimplified than just associating food. For example the multiple attachment phases.
