PsyA1 Attachment

PsyA1 Attachment

1. Bowlby

   • Evolutionary Theory
     • He came up with this theory of attachment on the basis that we are like animals and are born with the innate need to form attachments. His theory has five parts: Social Releasers, Critical Period, Adaptive Attachments, Monotropy and Internal Working Model.
       • Social Releasers are things that help a baby form attachments and these are present at birth
       • Critical Period is the time at which a baby must have formed an attachment. This time is 2 and a half years into the baby's life.
       • Adaptive Attachments are the idea that our attachment 'techniques' are adaptive to the environment
       • Monotropy is the idea that a child forms one main attachment and this is usually with its mother.
       • Internal Working Model is a mental schema about attachments that is formed by monotropy.
     • Studies
       • Harlow's Monkey's
         • Made a fake cloth monkey to represent security and comfort and a wire monkey to give food. Put a real monkey in the cage with both the fake monkeys and found that the real monkey spent most time with the cloth monkey than the wire. 17-18 hours per day on the cloth. 1 per day on the wire monkey. He concluded that attachments are more likely to be formed due to security and comfort rather that the promise of food
     • Other AO2
       • Zimmerman et al (2000) studied 44 german children by looking at their attachment type between the ages of 12-18 months. They also focussed on the relationship with the parents and were reassessed at 16. They also recorded life events and found that attachment type was affected by the life events and that it also affected the adult relationships. This disproves the internal working model.
     • Evaluation
       • +'s: Hugely Influencial, Lots of support, Alternative theories have been disproved.
       • -'s: Doesn't cover other factors, Little evidence to show attachments are formed on the basis of food, Zimmerman disproves IWM, less support for monotropy.

2. The learning Theory

   • States that attachment is a learned process which is the product of an association between the pleasure of food and the person giving the food. This is based on two different concepts; Classical and Operant conditioning.
     • Classical conditioning is the association between the stimulus and the response. Before attachment is learned, the infant will have an innate need for food. Food is the UCS and pleasure is the UCR. The primary caregiver who is providing the food is the NS and becomes associated with the food. When the attachment is learned the infant gains pleasure when the caregiver is present and so the caregiver is the conditioned stimulus and the pleasure is the conditioned response.
     • Operant Conditioning is where positive and negative reinforcement is used to learn the behaviour. When an infant is hungry it is in an uncomfortable state and so will cry to get the caregiver's attention to get fed. This food will provide a positive reinforcement and so the baby is likely to repeat the behaviour. The food acts as the primary reinforcer and the person supplying becomes associated and is then the secondary reinforcer. Fr the caregiver, the food acts as a negative reinforcer as it relieves them from the displeasure of the infant crying. The infant has now learned to cry to get the food and so feels pleasure when the caregiver is present and the attachment is learned.