Attachment

Attachment

1. Learning Theory

   • AO1
     • Dollard and Miller
       • Classical Conditioning - association. Food = pleasure, primary caregiver = food. Therefore primary caregiver becomes associated with pleasure.
         • Unconditioned stimulus produces and unconditioned response. E.g. of Pavlov's dogs: food (UCS) produces saliva (UCR). After conditioning the conditioned stimulus (CS) produces a conditioned response (CR). So door opening makes the dog salivate.
       • Operant Conditioning - reinforcement.Learning occurs when we are rewarded for something. Infant in discomfort when hungry - when infant fed this reduces discomfort. Feelings of pleasure due to food. Food becomes primary reinforcer. Primary caregiver becomes secondary reinforcer.
       • Secondary Drive Hypothesis - primary drives (essential for survival e.g. eating when hungry) become associated with secondary drives (e.g. emotional closeness)
   • AO2
     • Doesn't explain attachment adequately on its own.
     • Reductionist - infants can form attachments with those who are not their primary caregiver.
     • We do learn through conditioning: e.g. Skinner's Box.
     • Contact comfort = more important than food. Harlow's Monkeys: monkeys spent more time on cloth mother without food rather than on wire mother which provided the food.