explanations of attachment

• Imprinting


  A period during development in which a particular skill or characteristic is believed to be most readily acquired
• Goose eggs


  • Lorenz used these eggs in his study
• Critical period


  A period during development in which a particular skill or characteristic is believed to be most readily acquired
• Rhesus monkeys


  The species of monkeys Harlow used in his research
• Contact comfort


  The physical and emotional comfort an infant receives from being in physical contact with the mother or caregiver
• 16


  The number of monkeys Harlow used in his research
• Infant rhesus monkeys would show attachment behaviours towards a cloth-covered surrogate mother when frightened, rather than a food-dispensing surrogate mother
• Maternal deprivation


  The separation or loss of the mother as well as failure to develop an attachment
• Dysfunction


  More aggressive and less sociable (behaviour of maternally deprived monkeys as adults)
• Lack of generalisibility (key criticism of animal studies)
• Sexual imprinting may not be as permanent as Lorenz believed
• Harlow's research has theoretical value (contributed to our understanding of attachment)
• Harlow's research has practical value (social work, animal care)
• Learning theory as an explanation of attachment
• Cupboard love theory


  Caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by learning theory which argues that attachment is a learned behaviour that is acquired through both classical and operant conditioning
• Classical conditioning


  1. Learning to associate two stimuli together so that we begin to respond to one in the same way as we already respond to the other

  2. Food serves as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

  3. Being fed is pleasurable, an unconditioned response (UCR)

  4. The caregiver starts as a neutral stimulus (NS) producing a neutral response (NR)

  5. When the same person provides the food over time they become associated with food so that when the baby sees them they immediately expect food - The neutral stimulus (NS) then becomes the conditioned stimulus (CS)

  6. Once conditioning has taken place the sight of the caregiver produces a conditioned response (CR) of pleasure
• Operant conditioning


  1. Learning to repeat behaviour, or not, depending on the consequences of the behaviour

  2. If a behaviour produces a pleasant consequence, that behaviour is likely to be repeated again as it has been reinforced

  3. If a behaviour produces an unpleasant consequence, it is less likely to be repeated
• Secondary drive


  Attachment is learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive (e.g. hunger)
• Lorenz's geese imprinted before they were fed and maintained these attachments, regardless of who fed them
• Harlow's monkeys attached to a soft surrogate in preference to a wire one that dispensed milk
• In Schaffer and Emerson's study many of the babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother even though other carers did most of the feeding
• Reciprocity


  Quality of attachment is associated with factors like developing reciprocity and good levels of interactional synchrony
• Interactional synchrony


  Quality of attachment is associated with factors like developing reciprocity and good levels of interactional synchrony
• The best quality attachments are with sensitive carers that pick up infant signals and respond appropriately
• Many aspects of human development are affected by conditioning, so it is still credible that association (classical conditioning) between the primary caregiver and the provision of comfort and social interaction is part of what builds the attachment
• Social Learning Theory


  Newer explanation for infant-caregiver attachment based on the idea that social behaviour is acquired largely as a result of modelling and imitation behaviour
• Parents teach children to love them by modelling attachment behaviour e.g. hugging them and other family members, and instructing and rewarding them with approval when they display attachment behaviour on their own