Lesson 6 Learning Theory Of Attachment

Question 1

Learning theory

Answer 1

According to learning theory all behaviour is learned rather than being innate or inherited from parents.

People learn behaviour through two types of conditioning;
- classical conditioning
- operant conditioning

Question 2

Classical conditioning

Answer 2

An infant is born with certain reflex responses, the stimulus of food is an unconditioned stimulus and it produces the reflex of pleasure, which is an unconditioned response.

The person providing food is a neutral stimulus but over time they become associated with the pleasure gained from food.

The person becomes a conditioned stimulus that produces pleasure as a conditioned response.

According to classical conditioning this is how the attachment bond develops and is the reason children feel pleasure in their caregiver’s presence.

Question 3

Operant conditioning

Answer 3

Operant conditioning strengthens attachment. The baby receives positive reinforcement (when behaviour produces a pleasant consequence) for crying when they are hungry as the caregiver feeds them. The caregiver receives negative reinforcement (when behaviour removes something unpleasant) for feeding their baby when they cry as feeding the baby makes the crying stop.

Question 4

Advantages of learning theory

Answer 4

+ Learning theory is plausible and scientific as it is founded in established theory. It likely that association between the provision of needs and the person providing those needs can lead to strong attachments.

Question 5

Disadvantages of learning theory

Answer 5

• Harlow (1959) separated infant Rhesus monkeys from their mothers and put them in cages. Milk was provided either by a wire mesh ‘surrogate mother’ or one made of comfortable soft cloth. The monkeys clung to the soft cloth ‘mother’, especially when scared by an aversive stimulus, even if it did not provide milk. This suggests that comfort is more important than food in determining whom a baby will attach to.
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) also found that food is not necessary for attachment to form. They discovered that babies are often attached to people who play with them, rather than people who feed them. In 39% of cases even though the mother was the one who fed the baby the baby was more attached to someone else.
• This theory explains how attachments form but not why they form. According to Bowlby’s theory of attachment infants form an attachment to their caregiver to ensure they are protected.
• Learning theory is environmentally reductionist as it explains a complex human behaviour in an overly simplistic way. The infant and caregiver relationship is a very varied, sophisticated and complicated behaviour, and there are many different types of infant and caregiver attachment. Therefore 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.