explanations of attachment

Question 1

learning theory of attachment

Answer 1

classical and operant conditioning

• classical conditioning: Food produces pleasure. The primary cargiver becomes associated with food and becomes a conditioned stimulus to produce pleasure.
• operant conditoning for infants: crying is positively reinforced by attention
• operant conditioning for parents: attention is negatively reinforced by stopping their crying

Attachment is a secondary drive: the primary hunger drive is associated with the caregiver.

• suggests the child would form an (and strongest) attachment based on primary caregiving

Question 2

Bowlby’s monotropic explanation of attachment

Answer 2

• evolutionary explanation
• attachment is an innate system that provides a survival advantage which benefits both the parent and the baby.
• attachment ensures babies survive by staying close to their cargeivers

critical period
- the time within which an attachment must form for one to form at all.
- there is also a sensitive period after in which it is much harder to form an attachment.

internal working model
- mental representations of the world
- representation we have of our relationship to our primary attachment figure affects future relationships because it is our perception of what relationships are like

Question 3

A03 for learning theory of attachment

Answer 3

SUPPORTING
- isabella et al
- analysed interactions between mother and infant pairs in the first year of the infants life
- strong link between interactional synchrony and secure attachments
- emphasises the need for sensitive and responsive cargeiver being essential in order to form attachments (negative reinforcement)

LIMITING
- harlow’s research
- monkeys spent more time attached to the mother who provided comfort instead of food
- suggests that the importance in contact comfort is more than that of feeding

• schaffer and emerson
• most babies attached to one person. The primary attachment figure was usually the mother regardless of if she fed the baby.
• shows food might not affect who the person becomes more attached to.

Question 4

A03 for bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment

Answer 4

SUPPORTING
- brazelton’s still face experiment
- cargiver acted normal, ignored the baby, then returned to acting normal
- during the still face phase infants typically displayed distress, attempts to re-engage, and widthdrawl.
- shows that social releasers are significant for infants in eliciting caregiving, because infants seemed distressed when signals were ignored.

• bailey et al
• assessed attachment between 99 mothers and babies using SSP
• assessed attachment between the mothers and their mothers using AAI
• most women had the same attachment with their babies as their own mothers
• suggests ability to form attachments is based on the IWM developed as a result of primary attachment.

LIMITATION
- schaffer and emerson
- most babies attached to one person, but a significant amount developed multiple attachments at the same time
- suggests monotropic attachments are not the norm and it is pretty normal to develop mutliple attachments