Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus becomes associated with a response while operant conditioning involves learning behaviour due to its consequences via the use of reinforcement. Attachments are seen as occurring through classical conditioning, where babies learn to associate care-givers with food, and unconditioned or primary care-giver due to the pleasure food gives. Care-givers are conditioned or secondary reinforce. The food is the unconditioned stimulus which led to pleasure which is the unconditioned response. When the child is being fed, over time they associate the person providing the food with the food.
The most famous example of this is thanks to Ivan Pavlov. Ivan figured out that thanks to classical conditioning a dog would begin to salivate when it was presented with food as a stimuli. He termed what he had discovered as conditional reflex. After time he found that the dog would begin to salivate in the presence of other stimulus as well. This was due to reflexes that originate from the cerebral cortex of the brain.
He suggests that attachment is innate. This is because his experiment on the orphaned monkeys shown that no behaviour could have been learnt. The monkeys did not learn that the mother will offer comfort because it was orphaned. Therefore “behaviour must be innate.” Some may argue that the learning theory is too simplistic. Other people are involved in the baby’s life and it is possible for them to form attachments to their other family members/friends.
The baby associates the mother with food. Alternatively, Operant conditioning is learning through reinforcement. The mother rewards the infant by feeding him, so the infant associates the mother with the reward and repeats any action that brings her close. When the baby cries they receive food and the food relieves hunger and brings a feeling of pleasure which is the reward to the baby. Food is a primary reinforcer, because it removes the discomfort it reinforces the behaviour.
Instead, he suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes of human behavior. Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences". In other words, Skinner's theory explained how we acquire the range of learned behaviors we exhibit each and every day. Bandura – Social Learning Theory The social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura has become perhaps the most influential theory of learning and development. While rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning theory, Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning.
For example; a study by Harlow demonstrated that food isn’t everything as his study concerned monkeys who were raised by their own two wire mothers, however one was covered with a cloth and offered no food whilst the other offered food without comfort. According to the Learning Theory, the monkey should have been attached to the food mother, yet Harlow claimed that the young monkeys spent more time with the comfort mother, especially when they were
Explanations of Attachment Attachments can be formed in two different ways; the learning theory focuses on rewards given to a baby, such as food and comfort. The evolutionary theory focuses on adaptation and survival. In this essay I shall be exploring the two, and their supporting and contradicting evidence. The learning theory argues that attachments are based on operant and classical conditioning. First attachments are usually formed with the primary caregiver; the one who changes their nappies, feeds them and comforts them.
In particular, modeling is complemented through the application of attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation (Engler, 2008). The theorists attributed for the development of social learning theory is Albert Bandura. Through his work, the theory developed from pointing as environment as the sole instrument to shaping behavior through the collaboration of other factors such as cognitive and behavioral factors. The interaction of the three elements provides the necessary process to advance social learning and personality
Behaviourists believe that all behaviour is gained through conditioning. Firstly, classical conditioning claims that infants become attached to the person who feeds them or gives them pleasure, as food (the unconditioned stimulus) produces a sense of pleasure (unconditioned response). The food then becomes associated with the ‘feeder’ that then becomes a conditioned stimulus also producing a sense of pleasure. Secondly, operant conditioning (Dollard and Miller 1950) is used to integrate the perception of mental states. When an infant is hungry, this is uncomfortable and this creates a drive to reduce the discomfort.
Outline and evaluate the learning theory explanation of attachment Learning Theory suggests that all behaviour is learnt either through classical conditioning or operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is where an unconditioned stimulus gives an unconditioned response. For example an US e.g. milk would give an UR e.g. baby satisfaction.