AO1

• Dollard and Miller (1950) proposed the Cupboard love theory
• The Cupboard love theory which suggested that the reason children become attached to their caregiver is because they learn that the caregivers provide food and meet their other physiological needs.
• Classical conditioning is learning by association. When two stimuli are presented multiple times, such as food (unconditioned stimulus) and the mother (neutral stimulus), the feeling of pleasure (unconditioned response) starts to become associated with the mother
• Classical conditioning is learning by association. When two stimuli are presented multiple times, such as food (unconditioned stimulus) and the mother (neutral stimulus), the feeling of pleasure (unconditioned response) starts to become associated with the mother
• Operant conditioning is learnt through the consequences of trial and error, so through patterns of reinforcement. Pleasurable consequences for crying such as receiving food act as positive reinforcement, making crying behaviour when hungry more likely to happen
• As a result, the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus, and babies develop a happy, conditioned response to their caregiver.
• Over repeated experience of being fed by their caregiver, babies learn to associate their caregiver with food.
• At first, food is an unconditioned stimulus, and caregivers are a neutral stimulus.