Learning Theory (cupboard love)

Learning Theory (cupboard love)

1. behavioural explanation

2. born as blank slates

3. all behaviour learned

4. infant learns caregiver will meet their physiological (nutrition) needs

5. attachment learned by classical conditioning

   • suggests child learns to associate caregiver with needs being met
     • attachment forms
   • stimulus of food produces pleasure
     • unconditioned stimulus which produces an unconditioned response
       • person providing food (mother) is associated with pleasure and becomes a conditioned stimulus
       • person providing food (mother) is associated with pleasure and becomes a conditioned stimulus

6. Harlow 1959

   • placed newborn rhesus monkeys separated from their mother at birth into a cage
     • 2 wire mothers
       • one mother consisted of exposed wire and a feeding bottle
       • other mother wrapped in a soft cloth but offered no food
   • found monkeys spent most of their time with soft cloth mother
   • opposes learning theory as it shows that comfort was the reason the monkey became attached instead of the food
   • problems with study:
     • conducted on monkeys so can't generalise to infants
     • monkey was placed on cloth monkey, so may have stayed there because thought they had too or scared
     • lacks ecological validity by using fake monkeys