Dollard and Miller

Dollard and Miller

1. Behavioural/learning theory

2. Classical conditioning

   • Food gives pleasure to a baby.
     • As it is the mother who feeds the baby she becomes associated with pleasure
       • Eventually seeing the mother is pleasurable for the baby
         • Therefore attachment is formed
       • A child will form their strongest bond with their feeder.

3. Operant Conditioning

   • Food is a reward and the person who feeds the child provides the reward
     • The child becomes attached because the relationship is based on reinforcement through food.
   • A hungry baby will cry because it is distressed
     • Feeding the baby makes it more comfortable and so crying is learned through negative reinforcement
       • Over time the pleasure of being made comfortable by being fed becomes associated with the caregiver
         • The baby has now learned to cry to get the caregiver's attention and it feels pleasure when the caregiver is present
           • Attachment is formed

4. Social learning theory

   • Learn through imitation
   • Hey and Vespo suggest that attachment occur because parents deliberately teach their children (through rewards and modelling) to love them and to understand human relationships

5. Limitations

   • The person a baby becomes attached to is not always the person who feeds them
     • E.g. Harlow's monkeys - the monkey's were more attached to the cloth mother than the wire monkey that provided food.
     • E.g. Schaffer and Emerson - 39% of infants were not specifically attached to the persons that fed them
     • E.g. Tronick - babies had close attachments to parents despite being cared for and breast fed by many women.

6. Theory has face validity