Developmental Psychology Flashcards
Explain classical conditioning with reference to a Russian psychologist.
Classical conditioning involves learning through association. The key psychologist is Pavlov who taught dogs to associate the ringing of a bell with the arrival of food - until the ringing of the bell alone would cause salivation.
What school of psychology put forward Learning theory?
Behaviourists
What is operant conditioning?
Name the psychologists who offered an explanation of attachment based on operant conditioning.
Learning occurs when we are rewarded for doing something.
Dollard and Miller (1950) suggested that a hungry child feels uncomfortable and when s/he is fed, the feelings of pleasure are rewarding. Food becomes the primary reinforcer and the person providing the food is the secondary reinforcer … Attachment occurs!
Who challenged Learning theory in 1959?
Harry Harlow …. 2 wire monkeys - one attached to a bottle of milk and the second covered in cloth.
If Learning theory was correct, the rhesus monkeys would attach to this one … But they showed attachment to the cloth monkey - notably when distressed when cages cleaned.
What term did Harlow use?
Contact comfort
What is attachment?
An emotional bond between two people.
Explain primary attachment figure.
The person who has formed the closest bond with a child. Usually the biological mother.
What type of theory is Bowlby’s theory of attachment?
Evolutionary
Whose work with goslings influenced Bowlby?
Konrad Lorenz
What is meant by an evolutionary theory?
Attachment is innate. It is a mechanism which has evolved to ensure survival.
If attachment is an evolutionary function - we would expect attachment behaviours to be universal. Name a study from Zaire which supports Bowlby’s assertion.
Tronick et al (1992) studied an African tribe where infants looked were after and even breasted by different women but usually slept with their mothers … At 6 months still showed one primary attachment.
Who devised the Strange Situation?
Ainsworth
Explain Ainsworth’s 1954 study in Uganda
This was a two year naturalistic study observing mothers and infants in six villages around Kampala. She observed that the infants of more sensitive mothers cried less.
How did Ainsworth’s Ugandan study change her ideas?
She realised that Learning theory could not explain this.
How did Ainsworth extend her Ugandan study? What was she aiming to demonstrate?
She undertook a similar study in Baltimore, an urban American setting and had similar results.
She was aiming to demonstrate universal applicability.
