Explanations for Attachment: Learning theory

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    • What is learning theory?
      + basic principle that all behaviour is learned, not innate
      + learning theorists are also called 'behaviourists'
      + all learning is a result of conditioning - person or animal trained to give response to a stimulus
    • What is classical conditioning?
      + learning through association
      + learned response is produced when two stimuli are linked together
      + discovered by research from Pavlov on conditioning dogs to salivate when hearing a bell
    • What are the three stages of classical conditioning?
      + before learning - infants born with innate reflex responds to unconditioned stimulus which creates an unconditioned response
      + during learning - caregiver begins as a neutral stimulus carer providing food over time is associated with pleasure - becomes conditioned stimulus
      + after learning - carer becomes a source of pleasure independent of whether food is supplied and infant has learned a new stimulus response link, becoming attached to the carer
    • What is operant conditioning?
      + learning from consequences of behaviour though positive and negative reinforcement
      + behaviour likely to be repeated if there is a pleasant consequence
      + negative consequence (punishment) leads to response not being repeated again
      + linked to drive reduction - innate need that causes changes in behaviour
    • What does reinforcement do?
      + increases the frequency of desirable behaviour
      + positive - applied stimulus
      + negative - removes stimulus
    • What does punishment do?
      + decreases frequency of undesirable behaviour
      + positive - applies stimulus
      + negative - removes stimulus
    • What are the psychological processes in hungry babies in terms of operant conditioning?
      + hungry infants cry and are in the 'drive state'
      + drive motivates infant to find some ways to lessen discomfort of being hungry
      + being fed satisfies infant's hunger and makes him/ her comfortable again
      + results in rewarding drive reduction
    • How does operant conditioning work with infants and caregivers?
      + infants learn that food is rewarding - primary reinforce
      + person supplying food becomes secondary reinforce
      + infant seeks person because they are a source of reward and infant has become attached
    • What is a primary drive?
      + hunger is an example of a primary drive
      + an innate, biological motivator - we are motivated to eat to reduce hunger drive
    • What did Sears et al. (1957) suggest about caregivers and primary drives?
      suggested that as caregiver provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them
    • Why is attachment a secondary drive?
      learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive
    • Strength of learning theory: Research
      + laboratory research on classical and operant conditioning are reliable due to high levels of control
      + learning theory has strong support by researcher who conducted animal studies on conditioning e.g Pavlov and Skinner
    • Strength of learning theory: Dollard and Miller (1950)

      + infants fed around 2000 times in first year of life
      + usually by primary caregiver - frequent enough to learn a conditioned response
    • Limitations: Food is not the only factor
      + we do learn by conditioning
      + food may not be the only factor, interaction and comfort are also important
      + Harlow (1959) demonstrated that infant monkeys were attached without food to a cloth mother - goes against learning theory
    • Limitations: Lack of support from human and animal studies
      + imprinting was first shown on first moving object seen by geese (Lorenz)
      + Schafer and Emerson (1964) found even if babies were not usually fed by mother, this was still their main attachment
      + suggests food is not sole factor for attachment formation
    • Limitations: Reductionist
      + theory reduces complexities of human behaviour to simple ideas
      + infants have shown multiple attachments to those not involved in feeding (Schafer and Emerson (1964))
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