Learning Theories on Attachment

Learning Theories on Attachment

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2. Classical Conditioning

   • Associating two stimuli with one another to form a response.
   • In attachment, food serves as the unconditioned stimulus, being fed brings pleasure, this is an unconditioned response, and the caregiver is a neutral stimulus.
     • When the same person continues to provide food, the baby associates them with food, and expects food every time the baby sees the caregiver. The caregiver has now become a conditioned stimulus.
       • Once the conditioning has taken place, the baby will give the conditioned response of pleasure, which according to a learning theorist, counts as love.

3. A range of animal studies counters the argument that attachment is formed through a relationship with food. Animals do not necessarily attach or imprint to people who feed them.

   • Lorenz's geese imprinted on him before they were fed, and maintained that attachment regardless of who fed them. This is also seen in Harlow's monkeys as they preferred the cloth 'mother' over the wire 'mother' despite the fact that the wire 'mother' dispensed milk.
     • This shows that attachment is not formed through food and that it must be the same for humans as learning theorists believe that non-humans and humans are equivalent.
       • Even research with human infants shows that attachment is not formed through feeding. For example, in Schaffer and Emerson's study babies developed primary attachment to their biological mothers despite the fact that other carers did most of the feeding.
         • These findings counter the learning theory as they show that feeding is not key in forming attachment, and so there is no unconditioned stimulus or primary drive.
           • The learning theory ignores other factors involved with developing attachment, such as reciprocity and high levels of interactional synchrony (Isabella et al. 1989)
             • Additional research has shown that best quality attachments are formed with sensitive carers that can pick up and respond to infant signals.
               • If attachment was developed purely or primarily out of feeding, there would be no purpose to these complex interactions, and we would not be able to find any relationships between them and the quality of infant-caregiver interactions.

4. Operant Conditioning

   • Learning to repeat behaviour through reinforcement, or reward and punishment.
   • If a behaviour presents positive consequences it is likely to be repeated. This can explain why babies cry for comfort, an important behaviour in developing attachment.
     • When a baby cries, a caregiver will immediately respond, for example feeding. As long as the caregiver gives the 'correct' response, crying behaviour is reinforced.
       • The baby will then direct crying for comfort towards the caregiver, who will respond with comforting 'social suppressor' behaviour.
         • This is a two way process. For the caregiver this acts as negative reinforcement, as the crying - something negative - is removed from the situation. and they are more likely to repeat comforting behaviour.

5. Attachment as a Secondary Drive

   • Along with conditioning, learning theory draws on the concept of drive reduction.
     • Hunger can be thought of as a primary drive, it is innate and biological. Sears et al. (1957) suggested that since caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them.
       • Attachment is thus regarded as a secondary drive, as it is learned through the association between a caregiver and the fulfillment of a primary drive.