learning theory (explanations of attachment)

• learning theory explains caregiver-infant interactions as 'cupboard love'

  • learning theory emphasises the importance of the attachment figure as the provider of food
  • aka they will love whoever feeds them
• classical conditioning in learning theory

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  F)

  
• infant associates food with caregiver - attachment is formed with caregiver as they give the infant pleasure
• operant conditioning explains why babies cry for comfort

  • positive reinforcement: baby cries then gets food, so crying is reinforced
  • negative reinforcement: cries for food due to hunger, then gets food so hunger is removed
  • mother is also negatively reinforced as the baby stops crying if food is given
• drive reduction:

  • hunger is primary drive for infant, it is an innate behaviour
  • attachment to caregiver is secondary drive learned via the satisfaction from the primary drive (hunger)

  when caregivers provide food the primary drive of hunger is generated to them
• AO3: strength - real life application - helps caregiver form attachment using food, stronger and more successful attachments - useful

  CA: not all babies will respond to food
• AO3: weakness - contradictory evidence - Harlow animal study found that attachments form on the basis of comfort not food

  CA: Harlow's research carried out on monkeys, thus not generalisable to humans
• AO3: weakness - reductionist - Bowlby monotropic theory is evolutionary focusing on how infants are innately programmed to form attachments. they don't just form attachments based on food alone

  CA: reductionism can be useful to help wider population understand attachment research