Explanations of Attachment

• Attachment


  • Not innate
  • Learned
• Attachment


  Depends on who feeds the baby (i.e. 'cupboard love')
• Learning theories of attachment: Classical conditioning

  1. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

  2. Unconditioned response (UCR)

  3. Conditioned stimulus (CS)

  4. Conditioned response (CR)

  5. Neutral stimulus (NS)
• The unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response
• If the unconditioned stimulus is paired enough times with a neutral stimulus, then over time the neutral stimulus will become the conditioned stimulus and a conditioned response will happen
• How classical conditioning works with infants and attachment

  1. Infant is hungry (unconditioned stimulus)

  2. Food gives infant pleasure (unconditioned response)

  3. Primary Care Giver (PCG) provides food (neutral stimulus)

  4. Infant associates PCG with food (PCG becomes conditioned stimulus)

  5. Infant feels pleasure when with PCG (conditioned response)

  6. Attachment begins as infant wants PCG around, not just for food
• Learning theories of attachment: Operant conditioning

  1. Rewards

  2. Punishments (less so in attachment)

  3. Positive reinforcement

  4. Negative reinforcement

  5. Primary reinforcer

  6. Secondary reinforcer
• How operant conditioning works with infants and attachment

  1. Infant learns they can receive attention from PCG by crying, laughing, giggling etc (behaviours positively reinforced)

  2. Infant learns they can receive what they want (food, nappy change, cuddle) if they behave in the right way

  3. PCG is rewarded as negative reinforcer (infant stops crying) is removed, so PCG repeats the rewarding behaviour
• Primary drive


  Something the infant needs biologically to survive, such as food
• Secondary drive


  Stimulus that reinforces behaviour after it has been associated with the primary drive, such as the PCG
• Attachment begins when the infant forgets about the primary drive and looks for the secondary drive - the PCG
• Animal studies (Harlow and Lorenz)


  Do not support learning theory explanations for attachment
• Goslings in Lorenz imprint within minutes of being born, so have no time to learn
• Harlow's monkeys prefer the cloth mother that provides comfort to the mother that provides food
• In both Harlow and Lorenz studies, food is not the primary reason for attachment
• Schaffer and Emerson demonstrated that food was not a factor in attachment - in over 1/3 of cases, the mother did not do all the day-to-day care yet became the primary caregiver
• Schaffer and Emerson stated that attachment was more about who was the most sensitive and loving in responding to the baby
• The learning theory is highly reductionist in only looking at food as the main drive behind attachment, and could be seen as over-simplistic in ignoring reciprocity, sensitivity and innate qualities as factors