Learning theory

• AO1 - what explanation did Dollard and Miller propose?


  • ‘The ‘cupboard love’ explanation.
  • Emphasises the importance of food in attachment formation as children learn to love whoever feeds them.
• AO1 - classical conditioning

  • Learning to associate 2 stimuli.
  • In attachment, food is the US and it leads to the UR (a feeling of pleasure).
• AO1 - baby learns that mother produces a sense of pleasure

  • A caregiver (usually mother) starts as a NS, but as the caregiver provides food over time, they become associated with food so the NS becomes a CS.
  • Once conditioning has taken place, the caregiver produces a CR of pleasure.
  • Learning theorist believe this is the basis of love.
  • Through this, an attachment has been formed and the caregiver is now an attachment figure.
• AO1 - operant conditioning

  • Explains why babies cry for comfort.
  • Crying leads to a response from the caregiver e.g. feeding.
  • As long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced as it produces a pleasurable consequence.
• AO1 - negative reinforcement

  At the same time as the baby is reinforced for crying, the caregiver receives negative reinforcement as the crying stops.
• AO1 - drive reduction

  • Hunger is primary drive.
  • Sears et al suggested that as caregivers provide food, the drive of hunger becomes generalised to them, therefore attachment is a second drive learned by association.
• AO3 - ✖️counter-evidence from animal studies

  • Lorenz’s geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw regardless of whether the object was associated with food.
  • In Harlow’s research, monkeys attached themselves to a soft mother rather than the wire mother which provided milk.
  • Shows that factors other than feeding are important when forming an attachment.
• AO3 - ✖️counter-evidence from human studies

  • Schaffer and Emerson showed that for many babies, their main attachment was not to the person who fed them.
  • Isabella et al found that interactional synchrony predicted attachment quality.
  • Both of these factors are not related to feeding.
  • This again suggests that other factors are more important when forming an attachment.
• AO3 - ✔️elements of conditioning still may be involved

  • Seems unlikely that association with food plays a central role in attachment.
  • However, conditioning may still play some role in attachment.
  • E.g. a baby may associate warmth and comfort with a particular adult, which may influence the baby‘s choice of their main attachment figure.
  • Means that the learning theory may still be useful in understanding the development of attachments.