Learning Theory.

• Food creates a sense of pleasure, the person providing the food (usually mother) is associated to the food and therefore becomes the source of pleasure. 
• The association between an indivicual and a sense of pleasure of the attachment bond.
  • UCR: unconditioned stimulus = food.
  • UCR: unconditioned respones = pleasure.
  • CS: conditioned stimulus = mum.
  • CR: conditioned response = pleasure.

• Learning occurs when we are rewarded for doing somethiing. We continue to do things that are reinforced.
• Behaviours which produce a feeling of pleasure are 'stamped in' and therefore repeated.
• Those which produce unpleasant consequences are generally not continued.

Dollard & Miller.

• We have a primary drive,  a motivational state arising from basic psychological needs eg. hunger.
• They suggest a hungry infant feels uncomfortable and this creates a drive to this discomfort.
• When the infant is fed, the drive is reduced and this creates a feeling of pleasure. Food becomes a primary reinforcer.
• The person who feeds the infant then becomes linked to the satisfaction of food and therefore becomes the secondary reinforcer. 
• The infant is therefore motivated to seek the mother's presence to recieve this reward or feeling of pleasure.

• -ve: Shaffer and Emerson found that the first attachment formed by 39% of babies was not to the person who fed them but with the person who was most sensitive and rewarding to them eg. played with them.
• +ve & -ve: This explanation is at least partially correct; we do form attachments through conditioning. However, food may not be the main factor. It may be that responsiveness from a caregiver is an important reward that creates the bond.
• -ve: This explanation ignores the considerable evidence pointing towards the importance of evolutionary aspects of attachment. (i.e. we attach for survival)