Attachment - Explanations

Question 1

What is the evolutionary explanation in attachment?

Answer 1

The tendency to form attachments is innate and is both present in infants and mothers.

Question 2

What is the Learning theory explanation in attachment?

Answer 2

Infants have no innate tendency to form attachments and they only learn attachments because of food.

Question 3

What are the 2 behavioural processes in Learning Theory of attachment?

Answer 3

Classical conditioning

Operant conditioning

Question 4

Describe Pavlov’s research into classical conditioning.

Answer 4

• Pavlov established that meat caused the dog to salivate.
• Meat was an unconditioned stimulus provoking an unconditioned response.
• He established the tone did not cause the dog to salivate provoking no response.
• He presented the tone with the meat - the dog salivates in response to the meat.
• After a while, Pavlov found that the dog would salivate to the tone when it was presented.
• The tone had become the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response was salivation.

Question 5

What does operant conditioning involve?

Answer 5

Reinforcement

Punishment

Question 6

What are the two forms of reinforcement?

Answer 6

Positive reinforcement - rewards behaviour so that it is more likely to happen again.
Negative reinforcement - rewards behaviour by removing a negative consequence making it more likely that it will happen again.

Question 7

What is punishment?

Answer 7

Punishes a certain behaviour making it less likely that it will happen again.

Question 8

What are the features of Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory of attachment? (ASC-MI)

Answer 8

Adaptive
Social releasers
Critical period
Monotropy
Internal working model

Question 9

What are the steps to classical conditioning?

Answer 9

unconditioned stimulus -> unconditioned response

neutral stimulus -> neutral response

unconditioned stimulus + neutral stimulus -> unconditioned response

conditioned stimulus -> conditioned response