Developmental Psychology: Evolutionary and Learning Theory

Developmental Psychology: Evolutionary and Learning Theory

1. Bowlby's (1958) Evolutionary Theory

   • Desire to create attachment is biologically pre programmed into children at birth
   • If attachment doesn't occur in childhood there may be problems with it in later life, and with social and emotional development
   • Weaknesses
     • Ignores the role of the environment and learning
     • Suggests that mothers are more important than fathers - out dated
       • Implies that females are the only primary care givers
     • Decreased external validity - cannot accurately apply it to society - ignores other factors
   • Strengths
     • Supported by research from animal studies (Harlow)
       • Explains what it set out to
     • Human research supports - increased validity
     • Has led to improvements in childcare for human babies
   • Harlows monkeys: to find whether nourishment or security and comfort are more important when bonding attatchments
     • Procedure: Removed newborn baby monkeys from their mothers for 8 months and put them into cages with 2 substitute "mothers" - one made of wire and had a bottle (nourishment) and one made of cloth (warmth and comfort)
       • Raised in isolation - 20 minutes of interaction per day
       • Measured the amount of time the monkeys spent clinging to either substitute mother
     • Findings
       • Would feed from the wire mother and then immediately return to the cloth mother
       • Poor emotional development - would lack social skills and be scared around the other monkeys
       • The isolated monkeys who became mothers had few maternal instincts and abused their own children
     • Conclusions
       • Attachments are formed by warmth, security and comfort
         • More important than food and nourishment
       • If attachments aren't formed, often problems will develop later in life
   • Five key parts to Bowlby's attachment theory
     • Adaptive and Inate
       • Biologically programmed to make attatchments
     • Sensitive/Critical Period
       • Sensitive - humans
       • Critical - animals
       • Attatchments must be made within the first 6mths to 3yrs of a childs life
     • Monotropy - Secure Base
       • Monotropy: a single important attachment is formed (e.g. to the mother OR father)
         • Infants must have one secure care giver to form attachment with
     • Internal Working Model
       • Enables individuals to understand the world around them
     • Continuity Hypothesis
       • Emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure adults

2. Pavlov & Skinner's Learning Theory of Attatchment (early 1900s)

   • Strengths
     • High in validity - explains what it set out to
     • High face validity
     • Supporting research from animal studies e.g. Pavlov
   • Weaknesses
     • Based on animal studies - questionable whether humans act in the same way
       • Decreased external validity - cannot be generalised
     • Too vague - doesn't adequately explain attatchment
     • Schaffer & Emerson's study on babies
       • Infants NOT most attached to the person who fed them, instead attached to the person who was most responsive to them
   • Behaviour is learned through classical and operant conditoning
     • Classical Conditioning: learning through association e.g. phobias
     • Operant conditioning: learning through reinforcement and rewards/punishment