explanations of attachment

• Learning theory of attachment

  • Attachment is not innate
  • Attachment is learned
  • Attachment depends on who feeds the baby i.e. 'cupboard love'
• 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 (UCS)

  2. Food gives infant pleasure (UCR)

  3. Primary Care Giver (PCG) provides food (NS)

  4. PCG becomes conditioned stimulus

  5. Pleasure becomes conditioned response

  6. Attachment begins as infant wants PCG around
• Operant conditioning


  • We learn via punishments and rewards
  • Positive reinforcement
  • Negative reinforcement
  • Primary reinforcer
  • Secondary reinforcer
• How operant conditioning works with infants and attachment

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

  2. PCG is rewarded as negative reinforcer is removed (infant stops crying)

  3. PCG is likely to repeat the rewarding behaviour
• Primary drive


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


  A 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 of attachment
• Schaffer and Emerson demonstrated that food was not a factor in the attachment, it 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 said to be over-simplistic in ignoring reciprocity, sensitivity and innate qualities that may also be factors