He based his theory on the theory of evolution suggesting attachment was necessary to promote survival, through safety, emotional relationships and the fact they provide a secure basis for exploration. Bolwbly's ideas had great influence on the way researchers thought about attachment and much of the discussion of his theory has focused on his belief in monotropy. Monotropy is the suggestion that children have an innate drive to form attachments to a single caregiver and that it is important for healthy emotional development. As attachments are innate there is likely to be a crucial period of time for attachments to form. Bowlby believed
The theories (behaviorism, social learning, constructivism and social constructivism) will then be compared and contrasted to see what extent they recognise a role for social experiences in the development of a child. The theory of behaviorism is based on the understanding that human being is a trainable being and can be trained to behave in any particular way. Behaviourism believes that through certain methods of training and discipline, not only a person’s behaviour pattern can be changed but even their reflexes can be trained to respond in certain way to certain stimuli. Behaviourists rejected the child development theories which focused on ‘mental events’ as the cause of child development, and focused their attention on understanding how the behaviour of a child is influenced by his environment. Behaviourists considered any relatively permanent change in behavior that was caused by environmental events as ‘learning’ (Oates, Sheehy and Wood, 2005).
The learning theory describes two types of actual learning in relation to this known as classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning refers to involuntary responses and how they transfer to new situations. The procedure involves a pairing of stimulus and response, with a subject that comes to represent the given response. For example, if a baby were happy after being fed by its caregiver, it would soon learn to associate that happiness with its mother, and feel happy on seeing her alone rather than just when being fed. This demonstrates quite clearly how the learning theory suggests that an infant's responses would be based purely on physiological need; an emotional bond does form but the learning theory argues that only as a result of the need to be fed and survive.
This is because the attachment is forming between them because the child seeks the mother for the reward. Another theory is Bowlby’s Theory of attachment. In this he believes that attachment is vital for survival and development. This suggests that infants are automatically programmed to attach themselves (imprint) and form an attachment. He believes it is a biological process which takes place during a short space of ‘critical’ time.
Also it will explain the discoveries made by the researchers, comparing the species used, show their methodology, comparing replicating and ethics of both experiments. In this essay the importance of attachment has been emphasised. The researchers had close links with Bowlby’s theory of attachment. Bowlby’s ethological-evolutionary attachment theory explained how attachment occurs. Bowlby believed children and the primary carer developed mutual bonds which gave security and comfort to the child so the carer is not just seen as a provider of food.
– these are species-specific behaviours. During the evolution of the human species, it would have been the babies who stayed close to their mothers who would have survived to have children of their own and Bowlby hypothesised that both infants and mothers have evolved a biological need to stay in contact with each other. These attachment behaviours initially function like fixed action patterns and all share the same function. The infant produces innate ‘social releaser’ behaviours such as crying and smiling that stimulate caregiving from adults. The determinant of attachment is not food but care and responsiveness.
This assignment will describe and evaluate two theories in developmental psychology. Developmental psychology is the scientific study of changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Firstly looking at Piaget’s Theory, and then followed by Kohlberg, there will be an evaluation of the similarities and differences between the two. It will provide evidence of how Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s theories both suffer from the same criticisms as they both use dilemmas with a particular criteria of a child and culture. The theory only considers a child’s beliefs not its actual behaviour.
This theory acknowledges that there are some cognitive elements to being able to observe and imitate behaviours. These cognitive elements include; attention – in order to observe a behaviour children must possess the skills of attention, perception and understanding of behaviour. Retention – in order to be able to imitate a behaviour, individuals must possess memory skills and the ability to think abstractly about the behaviour. Production – in order to imitate behaviours individuals must be able to physically and realistically reproduce the behaviour they wish to copy, and finally motivation – for reinforcement to be effective, individuals must value the rewards and be motivated by what they expect to achieve from imitating a behaviour. Anti-social behaviour can be the result of something we have seen in either real life or in the media, a strong influence on our behaviour.
Both of these conditions show us that the child forms attachments on the basis of primary care provision and that the strongest attachment will be with the person who provides the most care for the child. Evolutionary theorists believe that the reason for attachment is survival. They say that a child knows that it needs to attach to someone in order to live and survive and that this instinct is instilled in them from birth. The attachment is said to develop within either the Critical Period or Sensitive Period and is something which cannot be learned again. Critical
When a baby receives food it will satisfy their drive and bring happiness therefore becoming the primary reinforce. The mother giving the food will be associated with the happiness as they give the primary reinforcement and so become the secondary reinforcer and an attachment will form. Social learning theory describes attachment as imitating observed behaviour. If a baby sees their care givers engage in loving and affectionate ways, and see their parents smile or simply enjoy close physical proximity, the child will develop similar attachment behaviour through observational learning. Studies on learning theories have been based around non-human animals so can reduce the validity of the theories as they can’t be generalised to humans.