Explanations Of Attachment

• Classical conditioning

  Before conditioning - unconditioned stimulus (food) -> unconditioned response (happy baby)

  During conditioning - neutral stimulus (mother) + unconditioned stimulus (food) -> unconditioned response (happy baby)

  After conditioning - conditioned stimulus (mother) -> happy baby (conditioned response)
• Operant conditioning

  Infant attachment is maintained through operant conditioning. Drive reduction theory argues that infants experience a negative feeling when they are hungry and have the drive to reduce this. The caregiver will repeatedly reduce this feeling by providing food so their presence is seen as a reward. Therefore behaviour that gains proximity to the mother will repeat and an attachment will strengthen. Operant conditioning also explains why the parent attaches. Positive reinforcement (baby smiles when they play with them) / negative reinforcement (baby stops crying when fed).
• Learning theory evaluation

  Reductionist as it focuses on basic processes - reinforcement is too simplistic to explain complex attachment behaviours, therefore the theory is limited. Environmentally deterministic - ignoring potential biological influences, therefore the theory is incomplete. A lot of counter evidence - Schaffer and Emerson: around 40% were attached to someone who did not feed them / Harlow – monkeys attached for comfort not food / Fox – Nurses fed children, but mother’s were their main attachment.
• Evaluation

  A strength of the learning theory is that it has some explanatory power in that we do learn through association and reinforcement, so would make sense that we learn attachment in the same way. However, a limitation is that food as the basis of attachment may be an oversimplification. Schaffer and Emerson found that many infants were not attached to their primary caregiver but the individual who was more responsive to their needs suggesting we do not attach for food but for comfort.