learning theory

• The learning theory assumes that all behaviour is learned.
• Some theorists have suggested that an infant is born with an innate predisposition to learn an attachment, suggesting the possibility that the concepts of both theories can be combined in one more holistic explanation.
• Infants form attachments primarily because they need an adult to feed them and are thus most likely to become attached to the person who provides them with food.
• These theories are known as 'cupboard love' theories of attachment.
• Learning theory suggests two important processes are involved in learning- classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
• Classical conditioning is learning to associate two stimulus together, resulting in the same response to both.
• This theory is supported by research from Pavlov who noticed that dogs salivate before food arrives.
• In classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) produces the unconditioned response (UCR), and the neutral stimulus (NS) becomes associated with the UCS, turning it into the conditioned stimulus (CS).
• The conditioned stimulus (CS) then becomes the source of pleasure (CR), independent of whether food is provided or not.
• Operant conditioning is when we learn through the consequences of our actions, which could be through punishment or through reward.
• If we are rewarded for our behaviour, we are more likely to repeat the behaviour, and this is referred to as reinforcement.
• Reinforcement can be positive (a behaviour that has a positive effect is more likely to be repeated) or negative (escape from some kind of unpleasant behaviour acts as a reward).
• Dollard and Miller (1950) state that infants, when hungry, enter a drive state, which motivates the infant to find some way to lessen the discomfort of hunger.
• When this state is satisfied with food the infant feels rewards, so the food is a primary reinforcer (avoiding the discomfort is the reward).
• Even when separated from parents, children continue to have very strong attachments, therefore food may not be the main reinforcer, it may be attention and responsiveness from a caregiver that are more significant rewards.
• The children were strongly attached to their parents and showed only relatively weak attachments to the nurses, undermining the learning theory of attachment as the prediction of food being a predominant factor in the development of an attachment relationship is.
• Based on the principles of imprinting by Lorenz, Bowlby believed that the attachment relationship between mother and infant is one which cannot be learned but can only exist from the moment of birth.
• Using monkey and generalising those findings to humans has its problems as humans are cognitively more complex and therefore the findings from using monkeys cannot be applied to human attachment behaviour successfully.
• From an early age, children lived in a children's house where they were cared for by a nurse who took care of their daily needs, fed them and so on.
• Fox studied children being raised in an Israeli Kibbutz, where children are reared communally.
• Shaffer (1971) argues that children do not live to eat, but eat to live, they actively seek stimulation and are not passive recipients of nutrition.
• Bowlby's evolutionary theory sees attachment as an innate response (NATURE) in an infant as attachment aids survival.
• Using the principles of classical and operant conditioning to explain attachment could be argued to be reductionist as it simplifies a complex area of human attachment to basic principles of reinforcement and association.
• Learning theory has practical applications for mothering, for instance a mother must provide a rewarding relationship with her infant in order for an attachment relationship to develop.
• Harlow's research has come heavily under fire, not just for its ethical problems but also because of the problems of extrapolating the findings.
• The caregiver becomes the secondary reinforcer as they are the source of the food (reward), the infant therefore becomes attached to the secondary reinforce (mother) and therefore attachment itself becomes rewarding.
• The parents give the child the food due to negative reinforcement (stop baby crying).
• These principles hold a similar presumption, that food is a predominant factor in the development of attachment relationship.
• The learning theory of attachment has good face validity as we do learn things though association and reinforcement.