Learning Theory of Attachment (Behaviourist Approach) Flashcards
What did Dollard + Miller use to explain how infants become attached to their PAFs?
The two process model — Classical conditioning, Operant conditioning.
What did Dollard/Miller suggest a baby has that they feel needs to be reduced?
Drive reductions - reducing pangs/intense feelings.
What is the learning theory that was proposed by Dollard/Miller? (3 steps)
- A baby is hungry which creates the drive in the infant to reduce their hunger.
- When they have eaten, the drive is reduced which brings pleasure.
- The baby will then learn to associate the pleasure of being fed with the person feeding them.
What is the learning theory sometimes called, which should’t be mixed up with?
Cupboard love — Freud
What is the classical conditioning part to the learning theory?
Baby feels pleasure when they are fed, with the PAF always being there during this.
The baby associates PAF with the pleasure of food, with the PAF eventually becoming as pleasurable.
What is the operant conditioning part to the learning theory?
When the baby is hungry it is uncomfortable, when they’re fed it goes away.
Means that when they’re uncomfortable next, they’ll want feeding and will cry for food.
What is the behavioural equation to describe the learning of behaviour?
UCS>UCR ; UCS + NS > UCR ; with repeated presentation NS becomes CS and CS > CR
> becomes/ leads to
What is the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) in the LT?
Food
What is the unconditioned response (UCR) in the LT?
Feeling pleasure
What is the neutral stimulus in the LT?
Caregiver
What is the conditioned stimulus (CS) in the LT?
Caregiver
What is the conditioned response (CR) in the LT?
Feeling pleasure
What is the word equation (instead of abbreviations) for describing the learning of behaviour?
Food > feeling pleasure; food is presented with caregiver and food >feeling pleasure; Caregiver becomes associated with Caregiver; Caregiver > Feeling pleasure.
What did Harlow suggest linking to refuting of the LT?
He suggested that food isn’t the main driving force of attachment and that instead, comfort is most important.
What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) find from their study of 1 year olds in Glasgow?
They found that infants were most attached to the person who showed them the most positive emotional interactions, and isn’t always the person who fed them.
How is Schaffer + Emerson’s (1964) study better than Harlow’s and how do they link?
Similar in that Harlow identified comfort to being most important, S+E found positive emotional interactions as to being most important in humans.
S+E don’t struggle with generalisation issues, as were human babies.
What was the alternative explanation that Hay and Vespo identified to the LT?
Give an example and why is this alt aood description?
They suggested that Social Learning Theory may explain attachment though infants observing caregiver actions. E.g hugging can be learnt naturally.
Has benefit of describing development through a two-way interaction.
Who is Ainsworth and what did they originally believe?
They were a researcher who originally believed LT of attachment was the correct explanation.
What changed Ainsworth’s initial beliefs and what did she find instead?
When she went to Uganda (1958) to observe attachments of infants to their mothers in a tribal culture.
She realised comfort was the most important, not food.
What does Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment involve?
Infants born with an innate drive to attach, and that the strength of this attachment is dependent on the quality of the care offered to them by their PAF.
What makes Bowlby’s theory reliable?
Many researchers all supported this, rather than the LT to attachment— e.g Harlow, Schaffer, Emerson, and Ainsworth.
