explanations of attachment

• dollard and miller- cupboard love theory, based on learning theory, infants become attached to caregiver as they learn their caregiver provides food, classical conditioning through association
• dollard and miller continued- operant conditioning- learning due to patterns of reinforcement, positive reinforcement- when a behaviour is more likely when receiving a pleasurable stimulus eg attachment when a mother feeds a crying baby it is likely to cry more to get more food
• negative reinforcement- when a behaviour is made more likely when removing an unpleasant stimulus, the parents' feeding behaviour is negatively reinforced by the baby stopping its crying behaviour when fed
• evaluations of learning theory- makes intuitive sense that babies cry more often when learning that crying gains them attention and ultimately food
• the behaviourist principles used to explain attachment eg pavlov classical conditioning and skinner for operant conditioning, however, such high controlled research on human babies is impossible for ethical and practical reasoning
• learning theory applied to attachment can be seen as environmentally reductionist- cupboard love theory dollard and miller drawback, behaviourists argue the complex interactions between caregivers and their infants are just the result of simplistic stimulus associations, learnt responses and patterns of reinforcement, whereas most parents would say their relationship with their children is much more complex than just through the environment
• harlows research counters cupboard love dollard and miller- found that monkeys attached for comfort not food suggesting attachment is not learnt but instead instinctual
• alternate theories of attachment that do not depend on learning theory- eg Bowlby's monotropic theory, gives an evolutionary explanation for caregiver infant attachment, arguing babies have an instinct to attach to their primary caregiver as they provide security
• bowlby monotropy theory- evolutionary based theory- infants have an innate drive to form an especially strong attachment to their mother (monotropy) and stay in close proximity, bowlby argues this drive is instinctual as forming a strong attachment is vital to infants' survival, as their mother provides food and security
• according to bowlby- to help develop the monotropic relationship, babies instinctively use signals called social releasers (crying, smiling etc) that attract caregiver's attention; according to Bowlby's monotropic theory, mothers are biologically programmed to instinctively find these behaviours cute or distressing
• Informed by Frued's focus on early childhood and Harlow's work on monkeys, Bowlby claimed the child's monotropic attachment to its mother provides a blueprint for future relationships (a schema), this internal working model guides how to conduct future relationships, such as if people are trusted or if relationships are loving
• drawback on Bowlby theory of attachment- 'if no attachment formed within first 30 months then this will damage the child's future relationships- later research on orphans suggests this period is 'sensitive', not 'critical', important, but suitable care can lead to recovery, counter to Bowlby's claim of permenant damage
• Bowlby's monotropy theory can be argued to be suffering from a lack of temporal validity as it is reflective of attitudes of a 1940s society, where alpha bias was present exaggerating the differences in gender and parenting roles, now there has been a changing nature of the modern family image where both parents are likely to share caregiving