Learning theory proposes all behaviour is learnt rather than inborn and it is learnt through classical or operant conditioning
how do attachments form (classical conditioning)
- begins with an innate stimulus response
UCS provokes an UCR(food causing pleasure)
.Certain things become associated with food if they are present at the time of feeding (NS is infant's mother)
The food (ucs) and mother (ns) are consistently paired together the neutral stimulus will become a conditioned stimulus and produced the same responses (conditioned response)
therefore seeing the mother creates a pleasure response and this is how attachment forms.
Dollard and Miller offered an operant conditioning explanation using drive reduction theory
idea that infants have a drive to reduce the discomfort of being hungry
being fed acts as negative reinforcement.
Food is the primary reinforcer and attachment occurs because the baby seeks the person who can supply the reward of food (mother )who acts as the secondary reinforcer
