Lecture notes
Learning theory
- Module
- Attachment
- Institution
- AQA
My notes summarise learning theory in attachment efficiently, sometimes offering a simple explanation and sometimes offering a more detailed approach to the subject.
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-Learning theory: Dolland and Miller (1950) Cupboard love theory- The reason children become attached to
their caregiver is because they learn the caregivers provide food and meet their other
physical needs.
-Learning theory- All behaviour including attachment can be explained by classical and operant
conditioning.
Classical conditioning- Learnt by association. When two stimuli are presented multiple times,
at the same time, such as food (unconditioned) and the mother (neutral). The feeling of
pleasure (unconditioned response) starts to become associated with the mother
(conditioned stimulus). Now the response of pleasure (conditioned) happens whenever the
mother is nearby.
Operant conditioning- Learning through trial and error, or consequences, or patterns of
reinforcement. Pleasurable consequences for crying behaviour such as receiving food acts as
a positive reinforcement, making crying behaviour when hungry more likely to happen. Also
stopping the crying (removing the negative stimulus), by providing food works as a negative
reinforcement for the parents, making it more likely the parents will provide food the next
time the baby cries.
Attachment as a secondary drive- Primary drives (desire to complete an action) are
instinctive such as food for hunger, sleep for tiredness and sex for reproduction are based on
a biological need. Secondary drives such as for attachment develop due to a learnt process,
in which they are associated with the satisfaction of a primary drive (food).
-Evaluation:
Learning theory is a clear and believable explanation for attachment and the underlying
learning theories are backed up by a significant amount of well controlled research. Also, the
theory has face validity, it ‘makes sense’ that babies would cry more if they learnt that it
gained them attention.
Learning theory applied to human feelings is seen as environmentally reductionist in
explaining the complex interactions between primary caregivers and their infants as the
result of simplistic processes like S-R links and patterns of reinforcement.
There is evidence that rejects the cupboard love theory, Harlow's research on monkeys
showed the infant monkeys did not attach on to the surrogate wire monkey that provided
milk but attached to the cloth mother which did not provide milk but provided some level of
contact comfort.
There are alternate theories of attachment that don’t depend on learning theory, such as
Bowlby’s Monotropic theory. This gives a reasonable evolutionary explanation as to why
infants would have an instinctual drive to from attachments with a primary caregiver.
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