Learning theory

• Explains attachment through classical and operant conditiooning
• Main principle is that babies will form attachment to whoever feeds them
• classical conditioning

  1. Before conditioning the food is an unconditioned stimulus which produces an unconditioned response in the child as hunger/ pleasure
  2. before conditioning caregiver is a neutral stimulus who causes no conditioned response from the child
  3. during conditioning, child associates caregiver (neutral stimulus) with the food (unconditioned stimulus)
  4. through repitition, caregiver becomes a condtioned stimulus who is associated with the pleasure from feeding. This results in caregiver eliciting a conditioned response (relief from hunger), from the child and the formation of an attachment
• Dollard and Millard applied principles of operant conditioning to explain human attachment between a caregiver and an infant
• Infant feels hunger, wants to reduce unpleasent feeling, so cries for comfort. Caregiver provides food, pleausre is produced which is a form of positive reinforcement. The caregiver also experiences reward through negative reinforcement from the infant stopping crying. Both behaviours are then driven to be repeated.
• Operant conditioning -

  Hunger is the primary drive, food is the positive reinforcer. Caregiver is a secondary reinforcer. attachment which is the secondary drive will occur as the infant will seek the person who can supply the reward e.g. the caregiver.