Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Explanations of Attachment - Coggle Diagram
Explanations of Attachment
The Learning Theory
Infants are attached to whoever feeds them - attachment is learnt
Classical conditioning
Mother (CS) = Pleasure (CR)
Mother (NS) + Food (US) = Pleasure (UCR)
The infant has learned to associate the mother with food which creates an attachment bond
Food (US) = Pleasure (UR)
Learning through association
Operant conditioning
Food reduces drive
Food produces pleasure which is a reward
When hungry, an infant drives to seek food
Food becomes a primary reinforcer
Learning through reinforcement
Mother becomes becomes a secondary reinforcer - this is the attachment bond
Bowlby's Monotropic Theory
Social releasers
Actions that trigger caregiver behaviours
Helps to form a reciprocal bond
Infants become strongly attached to the person who responds the most sensitively
Monotropy
Infants attach to one caregiver
Law of accumulated separation
A critical period
First two years of life is critical to attach
If not it's harder to form one later
Internal Working Model
Mental representation of relationship
Rules and expectations
Law of contuinity
Believes attachment is evolutionary
Attachment is innate an innate and adaptive process
Infant stays close to the person who will feed and protect them
Evidence that attachment is adaptive and innate
Lorenz's imprinting study
He believed imprinting has evolutionary values
However this could be extrapolating animal behaviour to human emotions
Monotropy is socially sensitive
Outdated + sexist
Controversial implications about mother's lifestyle choices
Father can also be the primary caregiver
Support for the IWM
Hazen + Shavers questionnaire
Attachment history affects later romantic relationships
Multiple attachments are important
Having on single attachment is unhealthy
Low in population validity as other cultures encourage multiple attachments