Explanation of Attachment

Explanation of Attachment

1. Learning theory

   • Behaviours or responses that have a reward are more likely to be repeated than those that are ignored.
   • Operant conditioning
     • (B F Skinner) showed that a rat could be conditioned to press a lever by rewarding it with food every time it pressed the lever. Skinner suggested that the rat had learnt to associate the food pellets and the clicking of the dispenser and in the end the clicking of the food dispenser became a reward in itself.
     • (Dollard and Miller) point out that the caregiver is responsible for feeding the infant some 2000 times in the first year. The infant therefore comes to associate the mother with all manner of positive reinforcers and she becomes a powerful secondary reinforcer
   • Classical conditioning
     • Occurs when a response produced naturally by a certain stimulus, becomes associated with another stimulus that is not normally associated with that response
     • UCS: food UCR: pleasure and satisfaction NS: caregiver CS: caregiver CR: pleasure and satisfaction
   • Social learning theory
     • (Hay and Vespe) suggests that the caregiver models loving behaviour and teaches the child to be affectionate eg. parents show the child extensive love ans they guide the child to reciprocate attention and teach them to show affection. This theory accounts for the complex interactions between adult and child that the behaviourist approach does not. However, it does not account for the emotional intensity of the relationship
     • (Evaluation) Lorenz's goslings show that attachment does not develop as a result of feeding, but learning theorists believed that non-human animal and humans were equivalent. Schaffer and Emerson show that babies developed a primary attachment to their bilogical mother even though others carers did most of the feeding
   • (Evaluation)
     • Harlow's studies demonstrate that feeding is not of paramount importance in attachment
     • Schaffer and Emerson have shown that infants become attached to people who are not responsible for their primary care. Indeed, many infants become attached to parents who ignore or neglect them
     • Fox found that children raised by metapelets on Isaraeli kibbutzim were more attached to their mothers than metapelets which contradicts the learning theory as the metapelets do most of the feeding

2. Bowlby's monotropic theory

   • The innate tendency to become attached to one adult female in a way that is qualitatively different from other attachments
   • Innate behaviour patterns such as social releasers serve to gain and maintain attention and to gain and maintain proximity.
   • Evaluation
     • (Schaffer and Emerson) shows that most babies attach to one person first, but they found that a significant minority appeared able to form multiple attachments at the same time.
     • Unclear whether there is something unique about the first attachment
     • When social releasers were ignored, the babies showed distressed. If continue ignorance, some responded by curling up and lying motionless which shows a significance of infant social behaviour in eliciting caregiving
   • When with the mother she can be used as a safe base from which the child can play and explore. When separation or stress occurs then attachment behaviours are used to restore proximity and security
   • (Evolutionary theory) suggests that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachment with others, because this will help them to survive.