Explanations of attachment: Learning theory

• What did Dollard and Miller investigate?

  • Learning theory of attachment
  • 'Cupboard love'
  • Dollard and miller emphasise the importance of food in attachment
  • They proposed that children love whoever feeds them
• Importance of food:

  This is sometimes called the 'cupboard love' explanation because it emphasises the importance of food in attachment formation. Children learn to love whoever feeds them.
• What role does classical conditioning play in Dollard and Miller's theory?

  Classical conditioning involves learning to associate two stimuli. In attachment:

  • UCS (food) leads to UCR ( a feeling of pleasure). This response is not learned so it is an unconditioned response (unlearned).
• Baby learns that mother produces a sense of pleasure:

  • A caregiver (e.g. mother) starts as a NS, i.e something that produces no response
  • However, when the caregiver provides food over time, he/she becomes associated with 'food'. So the neutral stimulus becomes a CS (conditioned stimulus)
  • Once conditioning has taken place the sight of the caregiver produces a CR (conditioned response) of pleasure. According to a learning theorist, the conditioned pleasure response is the basis of love
  • Now an attachment has formed and the caregiver becomes an attachment figure
• Role of operant conditioning:

  • Operant conditioning explains why babies cry for comfort (an important building block for attachment)
  • Crying leads to a response from the caregiver (e.g. feeding). As long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced because it produces a pleasurable consequence
• Negative reinforcement:

  • At the same time as the baby is reinforced for crying, the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops (negative reinforcement is escaping from something unpleasant, which is reinforcing)
  • This interplay of positive and negative reinforcement strengthens an attachment
• What is drive reduction?

  • Hunger is a primary drive - innate biological motivation
  • Attachment is a secondary drive - learned by association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive
  • Caregivers provide food so primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them
• Limitation: counter-evidence from animal studies

  P - A limitation of the learning theory is counter-evidence from animal studies

  E - Lorenz's geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw. Harlow's monkeys attached to a soft surrogate in preference to a wire one with milk

  E - In both these animal studies, imprinting/ attachment did not develop because of feeding

  L - This shows that factors other than feeding are important in attachment formation
• Limitation: Counter-evidence from human studies

  P - A limitation of the learning theory is counter-evidence from human studies

  E - Schaffer and Emerson showed that for many babies their main attachment was not to the person who fed them

  E - Also, Isabella et al found that interactional synchrony (unrelated to feeding) predicted attachment quality

  L - This again suggests that other factors are more important in attachment formation than feeding
• Strength: Some elements of conditioning could be involved

  P - One strength of the learning theory is that some elements of conditioning could be involved

  E - It seems unlikely that association with food is central to attachment. However, conditioning may still play some role in attachment

  E - For example, a baby's choice of primary attachment figure may be determined by the fact that a caregiver becomes associated with warmth and comfort

  L - This means that conditioning could still be important in choice of attachment figures, though not the process of attachment formation
• Counterpoint:

  • However, this ignores the fact that babies take a very active role in the interactions that produce attachment. For example, they initiate interactions (Feldman and Eidelman)
  • This suggests that learning theory may be inappropriate in explaining any aspect of attachment
• Alternative explanation: SLT

  P - Social learning theory could provide an alternative explanation for attachment

  E - Hay and Vespo (1988) suggest that parents teach children to love them by modelling attachment behaviour, e.g. hugging and kissing

  E - Parents also reward babies with approval when they display their own attachment behaviour (e.g. that's a lovely smile)

  L - This means that social learning theory can provide better explanations, including explaining the active role taken by babies in attachment development