Explanations of Attachment - Conditioning

• attachment is a set of learnt behaviours gained through experience of the environment
• strongest attachments with those who provide the most primary care
• cupboard love theory

  we only love our parents because they feed us
• classical conditioning

  • learning through association
  • attachment is formed because the mother is associated with food
  • babies receive food from the primary caregiver so therefore associate them with food
• before conditioning

  unconditioned stimulus (food) -> unconditioned response (pleasure)
• during conditioning

  unconditioned stimulus (food) + neutral stimulus (mother) -> unconditioned response (pleasure)
• after conditioning

  conditioned stimulus (mother) -> conditioned response (pleasure)
• Skinner - operant conditioning

  • we need to look at motivation and reinforcement
  • explains why babies cry for comfort
  • performs action (cry), receives reward (food)
  • this reward reinforces the action so the baby repeats it to get rewarded again
  • the baby associates crying with getting food/comfort
  • two-way process because as the baby is reinforced from crying, the caregiver receives negative reinforcement as the crying stops
  • an escape from something unpleasant and by feeding the baby you are decreasing the likelihood of negative behaviour
• positive reinforcement

  repeating a behaviour because it is rewarded
• negative reinforcement

  rewarding to reduce the likelihood of negative behaviour being produced
• primary and secondary reinforcers

  • infant seeks food because it's hungry
  • food gives it pleasure
  • mother is associated with food through classical conditioning
  • when an infant is fed, the drive of hunger is reduced, which produces a feeling of pleasure as they are comfortable again
  • the food is a prim
  • primary reinforcer because it directly supplies a reward
  • the mother or caregiver who supplies the food is associated with the food and so becomes the secondary reinforcer
  • the infant becomes attached to the mother because she is a source of the reward
• evaluation

  • base on non-human animal studies
  • a range of animal studies have shown that young animals do not necessarily attach to (or imprint on) those who feed them - e.g. Lorenz's study
  • learning theory may not provide a complete explanation of attachment but it has some value as the main reinforce is going to be comfort and attention rather than food
  • Schaffer and Emerson found 39% of infants developed a primary attachment to the person who did not feed them and therefore completely goes against this theory