learning theory of attachment

Question 1

who proposed ‘cupboard love’?

Answer 1

dollard and miller (1950) proposed that caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by learning theory

Question 2

why is the learning theory of attachment called ‘cupboard love’?

Answer 2

it is called this because it emphasises the importance of the attachment figure as a provider of food

Question 3

what are the 4 stages of classical conditioning of attachment?

Answer 3

1. unconditioned stimulus (food) causes an unconditioned response (pleasure)
2. neutral stimulus (caregiver) produces no response
3. unconditioned stimulus (food) and neutral stimulus (caregiver) produces an unconditioned response (pleasure)
4. conditioned stimulus (caregiver) produces a conditioned response (pleasure)

Question 4

how is operant conditioning involved in attachment?

Answer 4

• positive reinforcement: crying leads to a response from the caregiver eg. feeding. if the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced
• negative reinforcement: when a caregiver feeds them, crying stops. escaping from something unpleasant is reinforcing

~ this interplay of mutual reinforcement strengthens an attachment

Question 5

what is the concept of drive reduction?

Answer 5

• hunger is the primary drive
  > it is innate and biological
  > we are motivated to eat in order to reduce the hunger drive
• attachment is secondary drive, learned by association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive

Question 6

what did sears et al. (1975) suggest?

Answer 6

as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them

Question 7

evaluation: counter-evidence from animal studies (lorenz 1952)

Answer 7

geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw, regardless of whether this object was associated with food

Question 8

evaluation: counter-evidence from animal studies (harlow 1958)

Answer 8

monkeys preferred to display attachment towards a soft ‘mother’ rather than the wire one which provided milk
- this shows that factors other than association with food are important in the formation of attachments

Question 9

evaluation: counter-evidence from studies on humans (schaffer and emerson 1964)

Answer 9

babies tend to form their main attachment to their mother regardless of whether she was the only who usually fed them

Question 10

evaluation: counter-evidence from studies on humans (isabella et al. 1989)

Answer 10

• high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment, not feeding
• suggests that food is not the main factor in the formation of human attachments

Question 11

evaluation: some conditioning may be involved

Answer 11

• even if food does not play a central role in attachment, conditioning could still play a role
• for example, a baby may associate feeling warm and comfortable with the presence of a particular adult, which may influence the baby’s choice of their main attachment figure
• learning theory may still be useful in understanding the development of attachments

Question 12

evaluation: conditioning is an inadequate explanation of any aspect of attachment (feldman and eidelman 2007)

Answer 12

• research shows that babies take a very active role in the interactions that produce attachment
• both operant and classical conditioning sees the baby playing a relatively passive role in attachment, simply responding to associations with comfort or reward

Question 13

evaluation: social learning theory (hay and vespo 1988)

Answer 13

• suggest that parents teach children to love them by demonstrating attachment behaviours, such as hugging
• parents also reinforce loving behaviours by showing approval when babies display their own attachment behaviours
• this social learning perspective is based around two-way interaction between baby and adult, so it fits better with research into the importance of reciprocity