LEARNING THEORY OF ATTACHMENT

 An attachment is a strong emotional bond between two people, which continues overtime and is characterised by a desire to maintain proximity
 The learning theory proposes that all behaviour is learnt rather than innate
 When children are born, they are born as ‘blank slates’ and they are shaped by their experiences
 There are two ways which an attachment can develop: classical conditioning and operant conditioning

AO1:
Classical conditioning: (UNS + NS = CR) Operant conditioning: (based on negative reinforcement)
 Involves building an association between two stimuli and as a result, a  Involves behaviour being repeated due to reinforcement
new stimulus elicits a similar response to a previously known stimuli
 In the case of attachment, hunger acts as a ‘drive’ (a feeling of discomfort
 In terms of attachment, food serves as an unconditional stimulus (UCS). that motivates behaviour). This leads to babies engaging in behaviour to
Being fed gives babies the feeling of satisfaction, which acts as the reduce the drive e.g. crying
unconditional response (UCR)
 This will lead to the child being fed, which will reduce the babies’ hunger
 A caregiver starts as the neutral stimulus (NS) as a child has not learnt to and lead to drive reduction
react to them in any way. When the same caregiver (NS) provides food
over a period of time, the caregiver becomes associated with the food  In this case, the food is the reward and acts as a primary reinforcer as it is
(UCS). Thus the caregiver turns into a conditioned stimulus (CS) the actual object that reduces the drive

 Once the pairing and conditioning has occurred, the caregiver (NS) starts  Furthermore, the child recognises that the person who provides the food
producing the feeling of pleasure (UCR) themselves. Therefore, according is seen as the secondary reinforcer
to the learning theory, an attachment has now formed
 As this process repeats, the child becomes attached to the mother as the
mother is the source of reward and is the agent of drive reduction

AO2/AO3:
 The learning theory has some ー Refuting evidence from animal ー Refuting evidence from human ー An alternative explanation of
explanatory power studies research attachment
P A strength of the learning theory P A weakness of the Learning P A further weakness is there is P A further limitation is that the
as an explanation of attachment theory of attachment is that also refuting research from learning theory is a weak
is that although it does not there is refuting research from studies of human attachment explanation of attachment in
provide a full picture of animal studies E For example, evidence from comparison to other
attachment, it does have some E For example, Harlow has shown Schaffer and Emerson’s study has explanations, which not only
value how food does not lead to an demonstrated that attachments explain how attachments are
E For example, infants do learn attachment as the monkeys tended to be strongest with the formed, but why they are formed
through association and sought contact comfort and caregiver who was the most E For example, according to
reinforcement, but food may not formed lasting attachments with interactive and sensitive to the Bowlby’s theory of attachment,
be the main reinforcer. It may be the towel-mother instead of the infant’s needs, and not the attachment serves an important
that the attention and food providing wire-mother. Also person who fed them the most. evolutionary function for both
responsiveness from a caregiver Lorenz found that geese In fact, some of the children also the infant and the caregiver, by
that are the important rewards imprinted with the first moving had multiple attachments even increasing the chances of survival
that lead to the development of object that they saw regardless of though the mothers may have and the parent, ensuring their
good attachments whether that object provided done more of the feeding genes are passed on. Also, an
E This is a strength as the them with food E This is an issue as this further attachment forms when a
underlying principles of the E This is a problem as this shows solidifies the notion that feeding caregiver responds to the social
theory still has explanatory animals do not form attachments does not appear to be the most releasers from a baby during its
power for how attachments are with those that feed them and so important factor in human critical period. These can be any
formed actively refutes the role of food attachment signs of care instead of just
L Therefore this theory should not based pairing and drive reduction L Therefore this reduces the feeding related behaviours
be ignored despite all the refuting in the formation of attachment validity of the explanation E This is a problem as Bowlby’s
evidence L Therefore the validity of the theory provides a more rounded
explanation is reduced and powerful explanation of
attachment whereas the learning
theory seems like a partial
explanation of how attachments
are formed
L Therefore Bowlby’s theory can be
seen as more valid that the
learning explanation

NOTE: Only select the relevant AO1s (e.g. 2/3 points) and four evaluation points (AO2/AO3)