Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment Essay Example for Free

Outline and measure out the learning surmise of attachment EssayThe learning theory of attachment focuses of two concepts operant and classical learn. Classical conditioning as an explanation for attachment describes the baby receiving food (and unconditioned stimulus) and producing an unconditioned response (happiness) and the generate feeding the baby will be the neutral stimulus. The baby will then experience the mother giving them food (and therefore happiness) a sum of times and then learn to associate the mother (now a conditioned stimulus) with the popular opinion of happiness (a conditioned response) and thus an attachment will form. Operant conditioning describes attachment as a reinforced response. When a baby gets food its discomfort will befit happiness and the baby will associate this feeling with food and therefore food will become the primary reinforcer. The person feeding the baby will also be associated with the happiness and therefore become the secondar y reinforcer and an attachment will form. (evaluate)Even though the learning theory of attachment provides an adequate explanation of attachment it is flawed. Research evidence, such as that of Harlows monkey study, opposes the idea of learning theory as an explanation of attachment. Harlows monkey study involved giving a baby monkey the choice of either food or comfort (food was portrayed by a wire monkey with a feeding bottle attached to it and comfort was portrayed by a wire monkey covered in cloth). According to the learning theory of attachment the monkey should have spent most of his time on the food monkey, however the opposite was true the monkey spent the majority of his time on the comfort monkey. This decreases the validity of the learning theory of attachment as an explanation for attachment because the findings of Harlows monkey study opposed what it suggested. However, the monkey study was conducted on monkeys and it could be argued that this is not an accurate repre sentation of human attachment. Humans ar a lot more complex than animals and so therefore research on animals to study behaviour cannot be applied to human behaviour. Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment (12 marks) A GRADE (outline)