AO3

• Conditioning could explain some aspects of attachment

  • We might be able to understand how babies form a primary attachment figure through conditioning
  • Associating the caregiver with the feeling of warmth and comfort
  • BUT seems unlikely that food is the driving factor of conditioning and ignores the babies free will - babies initiate contact for a wide array of reasons and they are not as passive as the learning theory suggests
• Real world application

  • Understanding that babies can associate the attention of their parent or caregiver with happiness and pleasure can inform us that attentive parenting is a good way to strengthen bonds with babies
• Counter evidence - human studies

  • Schaffer and Emerson - most babies did not form their primary attachment to the person who fed them
  • Isabella et al - Interactional synchrony was found to predict the quality of attachment
  • This shows other factors are more important than food or cupboard love
• Counter evidence - animal studies

  • In Lorenz and Harlows studies - imprinting/attachment did not occur as a result of feeding
• Reductionist

  Too much focus on simplistic concepts which cannot account for the complexities of why and how attachment form in everyone - reduces them down to stimulus -> response
• Animal research


  Not as Applicable to human experience We have higher order processing and animals may not be as driven by emotion as humans so we can never fully generalise concepts (refer to the Point of animal studies)
• Alternative theory

  Bowlbys monotropic theory provides background for why attachments happen whereas learning theory is limited to the process of forming one