Explanations of Attachment

Question 1

What are learning theory explanations of attachment?

Answer 1

• proposed by Dollard and Miller (1950) that emphasises the importance of food in forming attachments
• often called cupboard love
• baby associates caregiver with food through classical conditioning
• baby cries for comfort as crying leads to a response from caregiver so crying is reinforced by operant conditioning
• the caregiver also receives negative reinforcement as the crying stops which lets them escape from unpleasant situation

Question 2

What is attachment as a secondary drive?

Answer 2

• hunger is thought of as a primary drive as its innate and a biological motivator as we are motivated to eat to reduce the hunger drive
• Sears et al suggested that as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes associated with them so attachment is a secondary drive

Question 3

What is a strength of the learning theory as an explanation of attachment?

Answer 3

• strength of some conditioning being involved, it is unlikely that conditioning and food plays central role but conditioning could be involved in terms of comfort and associated the caregiver with a pleasant feeling - still useful in understanding development of attachments

Question 4

What are 2 limitations of the learning theory as an explanation of attachment?

Answer 4

• limitation of counter evidence from animal studies as Harlow’s monkeys clearly showed comfort as more important for attachment than food - lacking reliability
• limitation of counter evidence from human studies as Schaffer and Emerson found that most babies attached to mother regardless of who fed them more - lacking reliability

Question 5

What is Bowlby’s explanation of attachments?

Answer 5

• Bowlby’s monotropic theory (1988) rejected the learning theory and proposed an evolutionary explanation that it is an innate system
• described as monotropic as he placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular figure called the ‘mother’ (doesn’t actually have to be the mother)
• he put forward 2 principals: the law of continuity (the more constant a child’s care, the better quality of attachment) and the law of accumulated separation (that separation effects build up over time so best does of separation is 0)

Question 6

What are social releasers and the internal working model?

Answer 6

• social releasers are innate cute behaviours liek smiling and cooing that encourage attention from adults that forms attachment
• said that mother and baby are ‘hard-wired’ to attach to one another
• critical period of about 6 months is more of a sensitive period from about 6 months - 2 years for easy attachments to be formed
• internal working model serves as model for what relationships are like so a child whose first experience is a loving relationship will expect or relationships to be that way and people base their parenting behaviour on how they were parented

Question 7

What are 2 strengths of Bowlby’s monotropic theory as an explanation of attachment?

Answer 7

• strength of support for social releasers from Brazelton et al where babies were distressed when social releasers were ignored by caregivers - shows role of social releasers for emotional development
• strength of support for the internal working model by Bailey et al 2007 who assessed attachment of 99 mothers to their babies and their mothers - found that those with good parental attachment also had good baby attachment

Question 8

What is a limitation of Bowlby’s monotropic theory as an explanation of attachment?

Answer 8

• limitation of validity challenged by Schaffer and Emerson as babies did originally attach to one person but in later stages they could have multiple attachments - there is a main primary attachment but multiple can be obtained