Learning Theory

• This approach is sometimes called the cupboard love theory of attachment because it emphasises the importance of the caregiver as a provider of food
• Classical conditioning involves learning through association

  
• Operant conditioning (primary)


  Hunger is a primary drive, a hungry infant feels uncomfortable and will be ‘driven’ to seek food to satisfy hunger. Food is therefore a primary reinforcer because it directly reduces the discomfort, and the behaviour is likely to be repeated (learned)
• Operant conditioning (secondary)


  Attachment is a secondary drive. The person who provides the food that reduces the drive becomes a secondary reinforcer, the infant seeks to be with the person who has become a secondary reinforcer because they are now a source of reward in their own right, and an attachment is formed
• The mother's response to crying is an example of operant conditioning whereby the baby learns that crying results in the mother responding by feeding them. This positive experience strengthens the bond between the child and parent.
• Strength (learning theory)


  scientific and is based on an established theory - there is plenty of psychological research which demonstrates that we learn lots of behaviours through association and reinforcement, there seems to be no reason to believe that attachment would be any different.
• Limitation (learning theory)


  reductionist - simplifying the complex behaviour of attachment to purely a stimulus-response or through reinforcement