This document contains an example answer to a 16 mark A-level question on the learning theory of attachment, assessing Assessment Outcome’s 1 (demonstrating knowledge of theory) and 3 (evaluating theory). This type of question may appear in the AQA A-level 'Introduction to Psychology' (Paper 1) e...
Outline and evaluate learning theory as an explanation of attachment. 16 marks
The learning theory of attachment is a behaviourist theory that suggests that all attachments are learnt. This
occurs through two types of learning; classical and operant conditioning. The process of classical conditioning
starts with an innate stimulus response. Attachments form when the innate stimulus of food (the UCS),
produces the innate response of pleasure (the UCR) in the infant. During the infant’s early weeks and months,
certain things (including their mother) become associated with food. The mother is the neutral stimuli. If any
neutral stimulus is regularly associated with UCS, it takes on the properties of the UCS and produces the same
response. The mother has now become the conditioned stimuli, producing the conditioned response of
pleasure even without the food being present. An attachment has now formed between the infant and
mother. Operant conditioning is based on drive reduction theory and the person supplying the food being
associated with avoiding discomfort. Therefore attachments are formed to those who satisfy physiological
needs.
The main limitation of learning theory as an explanation for attachment is that it suggests that food is the key
element in the formation of attachment. Harlow’s study on infant monkeys challenges this view. He found that
the monkeys were most ‘attached’ to the wire mother that provided contact comfort, rather than the mother
that provided food. Therefore contradicting the learning theory prediction that attachment is based solely on
the provision of food. Nonetheless, a potential problem that arises with this study is that it was conducted
with non-human animals; and so tells us how attachments form in monkeys; not humans. For that reason, it
could be argued that Harlow’s findings are not externally valid as non-human animals were used in his study,
meaning that it is harder to generalise out his research to humans.
Another limitation of the learning theory as an explanation for attachment is that there is much evidence to
suggest that infants also attach to individuals who are not in any way involved with their basic care, such as
feeding. Schaffer and Emerson’s Glasgow study found that a large proportion of infants had formed
attachments with siblings and fathers through playing. Therefore the learning theory as an explanation for
attachment, may be of limited usefulness as Schaffer and Emerson’s findings contradict the belief that
attachments are only formed to those people that can provide food, and satisfy physiological needs. However,
the participants partaking in Schaffer and Emerson’s research all came from working-class Glaswegian families
and therefore lacks population validity, in that it would perhaps be inappropriate to generalise out these
findings to other social classes and the wider population.
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