LEARNING THEORY AO3

• Weakness- Contradictory Evidence for food’s relevance to attachment: (HARLOW)

  • Took baby monkeys away from their mother & placed with 2 surrogate mothers WIRE mother (had milk) and CLOTH mother (had no milk)
  • Monkeys sought comfort from CLOTH mother immediately, preferred CLOTH mother (contact-comfort) 
  • Attachment based on comfort, rather than food 
  • However findings of animals cannot be generalised to humans, decreasing the validity of the learning theory
• Strength- Usefulness to reduce parental anxiety:

  • E.g. for parents that are struggling to form an attachment with their baby 
  • Can build connection based on food
  • Increases the validity- practical application
• Weakness- Opposing Theory for both classical and operant conditioning in learning theory:

  • Bowlby REJECTED learning theory, argued that attachment is innate
  • Children born with an innate tendency to form attachments- increases chances of survival 
  • Decreases validity- doesn’t explain all aspects that affect behaviour