Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Explanations of Attachment
- Learning Theory
- Children learn to become attached because caregiver gives them food "cupboard love"
- Can be due to associations made from stimuli (classical conditioning) or patterns of reinforcement and punishment (operant conditioning)
- Classical conditioning
- neutral/unconditioned/ conditioned stimulus
- Unconditioned/conditioned response
- Operant conditioning
- Dollard and Miller - hungry infant reducing discomfort
- Primary/secondary reinforcers
- two types of conditioning combined
- will produce desirable responses and associate the caregiver with feelings of pleasure
- Shaffer & Emerson found fewer than 1/2 of infants had a primary attachment- they fed them
- Harlow's research feeding < contact comfort
- Lorenz's geese imprinted before feeding and maintained regardless of who fed them
- Hay and Vespo suggest attachment can be explained by SLT- due to imitation and modelling
- other factors such as reciprocity, interaction synchrony and sensitive responsiveness
- Positive/negative reinforcement
- Bowlby's mono tropic theory/internal working model
- Bowlby opposes learning theory (nurture) argues it's inherited (nature)
- result of evolution, adaptive
- chid helpless at birth, adult care-close to mother helps it to survive
- Main features: attachment is adaptive - ensures safety
- Innate social releasers-born with releasers e.g. crying, smiling
- Critical period- attachment should take place, amended to sensitive period of 3year occur after
1year
- monotropy- one special attachment needed, could be
mother
- Law of continuity: >constant and predictable care > attachment
- Law of accumulated separation- effects of every separation add up/better to have none
- Internal working model- set of conscious/unconscious rules re relationships with others
- attachments in early life affect later relationships, support from Hasan and Shaver
- Evaluation of Bowlby
- adoption agencies place infant asap to max attachement
- Hodges and Tizard criticises critical period, can be up to 7 years
- Shaffer and Emerson criticised monotropy- children can develop more than one attachment
- Personality may affect attachments
- Shaffer- no. of attachments bring psychological advantages
- Bowl by suggests mother should be main carer
- Dunn- internal working too general
- Child picks carer on best communicator not time spent
- Brazelton- ignore social releasers