The Learning Theory of Attachment

• Empiricist approach


  Learning theory views children as being born with blank slates. Everything we know is learned through our experiences.
• Attachment formation


  1. Baby has to learn to form an attachment with its mother

  2. Through classical and operant conditioning

  3. In line with learning theory and behaviourism
• Cupboard love


  Where we form attachments to the person providing us with food
• Attachment


  Result of an association formed between the caregiver and the satisfaction of primary drive reduction (feeling less hungry)
• Classical conditioning


  1. Baby forms an association between the mother (a neutral stimulus) and the feeling of pleasure that comes with being fed (an innate unconditioned response)

  2. At first, the baby feels comforted by food

  3. Each time it is fed, the mother is also present (e.g. breast feeding)

  4. It quickly associates the mother with the pleasure of being fed

  5. Before long, the mother becomes a conditioned stimulus and also causes pleasure for the child

  6. This means that the baby feels happier when the mother is near

  7. This is the beginning of the formation of an attachment
• Operant conditioning


  1. Child carries out an action such as crying, which triggers a response, such as the mother coming to comfort or feed the baby

  2. The more this happens, the more that the action is reinforced, as the child associates the mother with those rewards

  3. The reward for crying encourages the child to cry more to receive more rewards like attention and food

  4. Food is the primary reinforcer

  5. The mother is the secondary reinforcer
• There is contradictory evidence from animal studies
• Animal studies


  • Harlow demonstrated that contact comfort was more important than food in the development of an attachment, where the baby monkeys formed a primary attachment to the cloth-bound mother, regardless of which mother was dispensing milk
• This suggests that there is no unconditioned stimulus (of food) and even if there is, it has very little influence upon the formation of attachments
• There is also contradictory evidence from human studies
• Human studies


  • Brazleton et al emphasised the importance of interactional synchrony and reciprocity in the secure formation of attachments between a primary caregiver and infant - these are universal features of attachment
• Attachments form not to the person who spends the most time with the infant, but rather the person who is most attentive to the infant and deals with their signals most skilfully
• This means that the unconditioned stimulus of food is irrelevant in most cases
• The focus on unconditioned and conditioned stimuli means that there is a loss of focus
• Interactional synchrony and reciprocity are both universal features of attachment and should be treated as such, as demonstrated by Feldman and Brazleton
• Learning theory does not account for these aspects and so is a limited explanation of only some aspects of attachment formation