Dollard and Miller

Behavioural/learning theory
Classical conditioning
1. Food gives pleasure to a baby.
  1. As it is the mother who feeds the baby she becomes associated with pleasure
    1. Eventually seeing the mother is pleasurable for the baby
      1. Therefore attachment is formed
    2. A child will form their strongest bond with their feeder.
Operant Conditioning
1. Food is a reward and the person who feeds the child provides the reward
  1. The child becomes attached because the relationship is based on reinforcement through food.
2. A hungry baby will cry because it is distressed
  1. Feeding the baby makes it more comfortable and so crying is learned through negative reinforcement
    1. Over time the pleasure of being made comfortable by being fed becomes associated with the caregiver
      1. The baby has now learned to cry to get the caregiver's attention and it feels pleasure when the caregiver is present
        Attachment is formed
Social learning theory
1. Learn through imitation
2. Hey and Vespo suggest that attachment occur because parents deliberately teach their children (through rewards and modelling) to love them and to understand human relationships
Limitations
1. The person a baby becomes attached to is not always the person who feeds them
  1. E.g. Harlow's monkeys - the monkey's were more attached to the cloth mother than the wire monkey that provided food.
  2. E.g. Schaffer and Emerson - 39% of infants were not specifically attached to the persons that fed them
  3. E.g. Tronick - babies had close attachments to parents despite being cared for and breast fed by many women.
Theory has face validity

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Dollard and Miller

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