LEARNING THEORY:

• AO3- Limitation:

  Lack of support from studies conducted on animals.

  IE:

  • Lorenz study on googling eggs shows that they imprinted on the first moving object seen regardless if this object was associated with food or not.
  • Harlow's research on monkey showed no importance on food. When monkeys were given a choice they displayed attachment behaviour signs on the soft wire monkey 'mother' rather than the wire monkey that dispensed milk.

  This shows that there are other importance factors other than food when forming attachments
• AO3- Strength:

  elements of conditions may be involved in some aspects of attachment.

  • it seems unlikely that the association of food is the central role in attachment forming.
  • However, elements in conditioning can be used to explain attachment formation.
  • IE: a baby may associate a warm, comforting feeling towards a specific adult, influencing their choice in main attachment figure.

  Therefore, though the main theory of food may be not be the case, learning theory can be used to explain the development of a primary attachment figure.
• AO3- Limitation

  lack of support from studies of human babies.

  IE:

  • Shaffer and Emerson 1964 found that babies tended to form their main attachment figure towards their mum reguardless if they were the one to usually feed them.
  • As well, Isabella et al found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of the attachment.

  This again further suggests that association with food does not play a huge role in the formation of attachment