Learning theory

Question 1

What did psychologists Dollard and Miller propose?

Answer 1

Caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by learning theory

Question 2

What 2 concepts does learning theory use to explain attachment?

Answer 2

Classical conditioning - learning by association
Operant conditioning - learning by consequences

Question 3

What does the term ‘cupboard love’ mean?

Answer 3

The idea that a child will love and attach to the person that feeds them

Question 4

Describe classical conditioning of attachment

Answer 4

Food is an unconditioned stimulus which is associated with an unconditioned response (pleasure). At the start, the caregiver is a neutral stimulus, so it’s a stimulus that produces no response. Over time, when the caregiver regularly feeds the child, they become associated with food and becomes a conditioned stimulus which evokes a conditioned response (pleasure). This is how attachment develops.

Question 5

Describe operant conditioning in regards to operant conditioning

Answer 5

Operant conditioning explains why babies cry for comfort. Crying leads to a response from a caregiver - feeding/ being picked up.
As long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced because it produces a pleasurable consequence.
If the caregiver provides a different unpleasant response (punishment) then it is less likely to be repeated

Question 6

Describe the idea of drive reduction

Answer 6

When humans experience a physiological, such as reducing hunger, they feel a drive to satisfy that need.

Question 7

Describe the idea of attachment as a secondary drive?

Answer 7

Hunger is the primary drive - an innate, biological motivator
We are motivated to eat to reduce the hunger drive
Attachment is a secondary drive learned by association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive
Sears et al. (1957) suggested that, as caregivers giver food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them

Question 8

Give 2 limitations of the learning theory

Answer 8

1. Lack of support from animal studies - Lorenz’s geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw regardless of who fed them
   Harlow’s monkeys attached to the soft cloth ‘mother’ rather than the wire milk ‘mother’
   Therefore, according to learning theorist, attachments do not develop as a result of feeding
2. Lack of support from human studies - Schaffer and Emmerson found that babies tended to form primary attachments to mothers regardless of who fed them
   Psychologist found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment - not related to feeding
   This suggets that other factors are more important than food in the formation of attachment