Explanations of attachments-learning theory

• Learning theory

  Approach that explains caregiver-infant attachment through learning processes
• Learning theorists John Dollard and Neal Miller (1950)


  • Proposed that caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by learning theory
  • Their approach is sometimes called a 'cupboard love' approach because it emphasises the importance of the attachment figure as a provider of food
• Classical conditioning

  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
• Classical conditioning of attachment

  1. Food serves as an unconditioned stimulus

  2. Being fed gives us pleasure - we don't have to learn that, it is an unconditioned response

  3. A caregiver starts as a neutral stimulus

  4. When the caregiver provides food over time they become associated with food

  5. When the baby then sees this person there is an expectation of food

  6. The neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus

  7. Once conditioning has taken place the sight of the caregiver produces a conditioned response of pleasure
• Operant conditioning

  Learning from the consequences of behaviour
• Operant conditioning of attachment

  1. If a behaviour produces a pleasant consequence, that behaviour is likely to be repeated again

  2. Crying leads to a response from the caregiver, for example feeding

  3. As long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced

  4. The baby then directs crying for comfort towards the caregiver who responds with comforting 'social suppressor behaviour

  5. This reinforcement is a two-way process - the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops
• Attachment as a secondary drive

  • Hunger can be thought of as a primary drive - it's an innate, biological motivator
  • As caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes learned by an association with the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive
  • Attachment is thus a secondary drive
• Animal studies

  • Lorenz's geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw regardless of whether this object was associated with food
  • Harlow's monkeys displayed attachment behaviour towards a soft surrogate mother in preference to a wire one which provided milk
• This shows that factors other than association with food are important in the formation of attachments
• Human studies

  • Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964) found that babies tended to form their main attachment to the mother regardless of whether she was the one who usually fed them
  • Russell Isabella et al. (1989) found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment
• This again suggests that food is not the main factor in the formation of human attachments