Theories of attachment: learning theories
This section opens the A Level unit on attachment, and it assumes the AS knowledge you built in Units 1 and 2: research methods, and above all classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning theory from the learning theories topic (notes units D1 and D2).
Attachment is examined on Unit 3 (WPS03/01), in Section A, Developmental psychology.
You will meet it in short items (State, Describe, Explain), in an 8-mark Discuss with a scenario, and as material for the synoptic 8-mark question on issues and debates.
For this part of the unit you need to know the "Theories of attachment: learning theories including O'Connor et al.'s (2013) study on social learning, parenting and attachment; Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis and theory of attachment, including the 44 Juvenile Thieves study (1944)."
This section teaches the learning theories.
O'Connor et al.
(2013) has its own section next, and Bowlby has three after that.
- The paper. WPS03/01 lasts 1 hour 30 minutes for 64 marks. Section A (Developmental psychology) is 32 marks: Questions 1 to 3 are short items worth 16 marks together, then Question 4 and Question 5 are two single 8-mark items. Question 5 is the synoptic question on issues and debates in developmental psychology. Section B is your option (criminological or health psychology), another 32 marks. Allow about 1.4 minutes per mark.
- Command words used in Unit 3: State and Identify (1); Convert (1); Describe (2 or 4); Explain (2 for one point, 4 for two); Justify (2 or 3); Draw (3); Calculate (4); Discuss, Evaluate and Assess (8). Never Define, Outline, Give, Name, Compare, Analyse, Suggest or To what extent on this paper.
- The 8-mark items. Discuss always comes with a scenario and the instruction to refer to the context (AO1 4 + AO2 4); Evaluate and Assess come without a scenario (AO1 4 + AO3 4). An Evaluate ends in a balanced conclusion; an Assess weighs every point against the question's own term ("how far", "whether") and ends in a judgement.
- Explain always means a point plus its justification. The second mark (AO3) is the reason or the evidence, and it is the mark most often lost on every Unit 3 paper.
- Attachment's weight. From January 2024 to June 2025 attachment carried about 15 marks of Section A as a main topic, plus the subject of two of the synoptic 8-mark items, so it can decide a grade.
The idea: why does a baby love the person who looks after her?
Kofi is eight months old.
When his mother Abena leaves the room he cries and crawls after her; when she comes back he reaches up to be held and calms at once.
He smiles at his aunt and his grandfather, but a stranger who tries to pick him up makes him turn away and cry.
Kofi has formed an attachment: a strong, lasting emotional bond with a particular person, shown by seeking to be near them, distress when separated, and pleasure and comfort when reunited.
Why does this bond form, and why with Abena?
Psychologists have given two very different kinds of answer.
One kind says the bond is learned from experience, in the same way any other behaviour is learned.
The other, from John Bowlby, says the bond is innate: babies are born ready to attach because attachment helped our ancestors' babies survive.
This section teaches the first answer, the learning theories.
They are sometimes called the "cupboard love" explanation, because they say the baby loves the person who provides food, the way a pet loves whoever opens the cupboard.
Classical conditioning: the caregiver becomes a signal for pleasure
You met classical conditioning in Unit 2: a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus until the neutral stimulus alone produces the response.
Learning theorists apply exactly the same process to attachment.
- Food is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). It produces pleasure (a full stomach, relief from hunger) without any learning: an unconditioned response (UCR).
- At first the caregiver is a neutral stimulus (NS). She produces no particular response.
- The caregiver is present every time the baby is fed, hundreds of times in the first months. Through this repeated pairing, the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS).
- Now the caregiver alone, even without food, produces pleasure: a conditioned response (CR). Learning theory says this learned pleasure in the caregiver's presence is what we call attachment.
The diagram below sets out the same chain as before, during and after conditioning.
Why this would make the bond specific to one person. The pairing happens with whoever does the feeding.
If one person does most of the feeding, that person is paired with food most often and becomes the strongest conditioned stimulus, so the theory predicts the main attachment should be to the main feeder.
Operant conditioning: drive reduction and reinforcement
Operant conditioning explains why the baby actively seeks the caregiver, not only feels pleasure near her.
Dollard and Miller (1950) explained attachment through drive reduction.
1. A hungry baby is in a state of discomfort. Hunger is a primary drive: a biological need the baby is born with.
2. The baby cries. The caregiver comes and feeds the baby.
3. The discomfort is removed. Removing something unpleasant strengthens the behaviour that came before it: negative reinforcement.
4. Because the caregiver is the person who reduces the drive, she becomes associated with relief and becomes a secondary reinforcer: rewarding in her own right. The baby then seeks her out to get the reward of her presence. Learning theorists call this attachment a secondary drive.
Reinforcement runs both ways.
The baby's crying stops when the caregiver feeds it, so the caregiver is negatively reinforced for feeding and comforting (the unpleasant crying stops), and positively reinforced by the baby's smiles.
So the theory explains why the caregiver keeps responding, as well as why the baby keeps seeking her.
Social learning: attachment behaviour copied from parents
Learning theories include social learning theory as well, which you met as Bandura's theory in Unit 2 (D2).
Social learning adds two ideas to conditioning:
- Modelling. Children observe how their parents behave towards them and towards each other: hugging, kissing, comforting, saying "I love you". They imitate these behaviours. Hay and Vespo (1988) argued that parents in effect teach children to love by modelling affectionate behaviour and by direct instruction ("give Grandma a hug").
- Reinforcement of attachment behaviour. When a child shows affection (holding out arms, cuddling), parents usually respond warmly. The child's affectionate behaviour is positively reinforced, so it becomes more frequent.
This is why the learning theories are linked here to parenting: if attachment behaviour is learned from the way parents behave, then changing the way parents behave should change attachment.
O'Connor et al.
(2013), next section, tested whether a parenting programme built on social learning theory changed the attachment-related parts of parenting.
How the three mechanisms fit together. Classical conditioning explains the feeling (pleasure at the caregiver), operant conditioning explains the seeking (the caregiver is rewarding, so the baby approaches her), and social learning explains the form that attachment behaviour takes (copying how love is shown in the family).
Evaluating the learning theories
Evidence against the role of food (the central weakness).
- Harlow (1958) raised infant rhesus monkeys with two surrogate "mothers": one made of bare wire that held a feeding bottle, and one covered in soft cloth that gave no food. The monkeys spent most of their time clinging to the cloth mother and went to the wire mother only to feed. When frightened, they ran to the cloth mother. So contact comfort, not food, was what produced the bond in these monkeys, the opposite of the cupboard-love prediction.
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) followed 60 babies from working-class families in Glasgow through their first 18 months, using mothers' reports of the baby's protest at separation. In 39% of cases the person who usually fed, bathed and changed the baby was not the baby's main attachment figure. The strongest attachments were to the person who was most responsive to the baby's signals and interacted most with them. Learning theory predicts the main feeder should always be the main attachment figure, so this finding counts against it.
Strengths.
- The theory rests on processes (classical and operant conditioning, modelling) that are well supported by experiments in other areas, so it uses mechanisms known to change behaviour.
- It explains that attachment can be changed by experience, which makes it useful: if attachment behaviour is learned, parenting programmes and foster carers can help a child form new bonds. O'Connor et al. (2013) found that a social learning parenting programme improved parents' sensitive responding, an attachment-related part of parenting.
- Attention and responsiveness can be seen as reinforcers too. Seen this way, Schaffer and Emerson's finding (responsiveness matters most) can be partly brought back into a learning account: the responsive person gives the most rewarding interaction.
Weaknesses.
- Reductionism. It reduces a rich emotional bond to stimulus-response links and rewards, and leaves out the baby's own temperament, and any innate readiness to attach.
- Generalising from animals. Much of the conditioning evidence comes from animal research (Pavlov's dogs, Skinner's rats and pigeons). Generalising those findings to human infants' emotional bonds may not be valid, and ironically the animal research that tested attachment directly (Harlow) went against the theory.
- Bowlby's alternative explains more. Bowlby's theory (later in this unit) explains why babies attach to responsive people who do not feed them, why there seems to be a sensitive period for forming attachments, and why attachment behaviour looks similar across cultures.
What the learning theories do and do not claim
A common confusion is to think the learning theories say babies love whoever gives them the most attention in general.
The classic learning theory account is specifically about food as the primary reinforcer: the caregiver is valuable because she is linked with feeding.
Modern versions widen the reinforcer to comfort and attention, and that is why they survive Harlow's and Schaffer and Emerson's findings better.
When you evaluate, say which version you mean.
Another confusion is between negative reinforcement and punishment.
In drive reduction, the baby's discomfort (hunger) is removed, so the behaviour that led to the caregiver arriving is strengthened.
That is negative reinforcement: something unpleasant taken away, behaviour increases.
Punishment would make a behaviour less frequent.
Unit 2 link. The terms UCS, UCR, NS, CS and CR, positive and negative reinforcement, primary and secondary reinforcers, modelling and vicarious reinforcement are all taught in D1 and D2.
Unit 3 expects you to use them accurately in a new context.
- Attachment: a strong, lasting emotional bond between an infant and a particular caregiver, shown by seeking closeness, distress on separation and comfort on reunion.
- Learning theories (of attachment): explanations that say attachment is learned through classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning, not inborn.
- Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): a stimulus that produces a response without learning, such as food producing pleasure.
- Conditioned stimulus (CS): a once-neutral stimulus that produces a response after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, such as the caregiver after feeding.
- Primary drive: an innate biological need, such as hunger, that motivates behaviour to reduce it.
- Secondary reinforcer: something that becomes rewarding because it has been associated with a primary reinforcer, such as the caregiver associated with food.
- Negative reinforcement: strengthening a behaviour by removing something unpleasant, such as hunger being removed when the caregiver feeds the baby.
Describe how classical conditioning may explain the formation of attachment.
(2)
Top answer (2 of 2).
1. Food is an unconditioned stimulus that produces pleasure, and the caregiver, at first a neutral stimulus, is present every time the baby is fed. (AO1)
2. After repeated pairing the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus, so her presence alone produces pleasure, a conditioned response, which is the attachment. (AO1)
Why it scores 2: two developed points that follow the process in order, using the terms correctly.
A Describe earns one mark per developed point and needs no evaluation.
Weaker answer (1 of 2): "The baby associates the mother with food, so it becomes attached to her."
This is one point, accurate but undeveloped: it does not say what the food does (pleasure) or what the mother becomes (a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response).
Explain one weakness of learning theory as an explanation of attachment.
(2)
Top answer (2 of 2): Learning theory says the main attachment forms with the person who feeds the baby (AO1), but Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that in 39% of their Glasgow babies the main attachment figure was not the person who usually fed and cared for them; the strongest bonds were with the most responsive person, so feeding cannot be the main cause of attachment (AO3).
Weaker answer (1 of 2): "Harlow's monkeys preferred the cloth mother, so learning theory is wrong."
The identification is there (the monkeys' preference), but there is no reason why this counts against the theory: the cloth mother gave no food, so comfort and not food produced the bond.
The justification mark needs the consequence spelled out.
Mei looks after her baby son Jun at home and does almost all of his feeding.
Jun now smiles and reaches for Mei as soon as she enters the room, even when it is not feeding time.
Explain how operant conditioning may account for Jun's behaviour towards Mei.
(2)
Top answer (2 of 2): Mei is the person who feeds Jun, so each time she arrives his hunger, a primary drive, is reduced (AO2); this relief negatively reinforces approaching her, and Mei becomes a secondary reinforcer, so Jun reaches for her even when he is not hungry because her presence has become rewarding in itself (AO3).
Not credited (0 of 2): "Operant conditioning is learning through reinforcement, so the baby is reinforced and becomes attached."
Nothing in it comes from the scenario: no Mei, no feeding, no reaching outside feeding time.
Generic answers score nothing on a scenario item, and using only the names is still generic.
When you explain attachment through conditioning, use the technical terms in the right place and in the order of the process: UCS (food), UCR (pleasure), NS (caregiver), pairing, CS (caregiver), CR (pleasure = attachment).
For operant conditioning, name the drive (hunger), the reinforcement (negative, because discomfort is removed) and what the caregiver becomes (a secondary reinforcer).
Vague answers such as "the baby learns to like the mother" score little because they do not show the mechanism.
- Calling the caregiver the unconditioned stimulus. Food is the UCS. The caregiver starts as the neutral stimulus and becomes the conditioned stimulus.
- Confusing negative reinforcement with punishment. Removing hunger strengthens the baby's behaviour (negative reinforcement); punishment weakens a behaviour.
- Using Harlow without the reason. "Harlow found monkeys preferred the cloth mother" earns the identification only; add that the cloth mother gave no food, so comfort, not feeding, produced the bond.
- Forgetting social learning. Learning theories include modelling and reinforcement of affectionate behaviour, the part O'Connor et al. (2013) tested through parenting.
Check your understanding
1. State what is meant by a 'secondary reinforcer' in learning theory explanations of attachment. (1) Total [1]
2. Describe how social learning may explain the formation of attachment. (2) Total [2]
3. A student writes: "Harlow's monkeys show that attachment is learned, because the monkeys learned which mother to go to." Explain one reason why this student's conclusion is wrong. (2) Total [2]
4. Tomasz's grandmother looks after him every weekday while his parents work, and she gives him most of his meals. His father works long hours but plays with Tomasz every evening and always comes when he cries at night. At 14 months, Tomasz is most upset when his father leaves and runs to him when frightened. Explain one strength and one weakness of learning theory as an explanation of Tomasz's attachment. (4) Total [4]
5. Evaluate learning theories as an explanation of attachment. (8) Total [8]
Answers
1. Something that becomes rewarding because it has been associated with a primary reinforcer, such as the caregiver who is associated with food (AO1 1).
2. Two developed points, for example: children observe their parents showing affection, such as hugging and comforting, and imitate this behaviour (modelling) (AO1 1); when the child shows affection the parent responds warmly, so the child's attachment behaviour is positively reinforced and becomes more frequent (AO1 1).
3. The cloth mother gave no food but the monkeys clung to her and went to the wire mother only to feed (AO1 1), so the bond formed through contact comfort and not through being fed, which is the opposite of what learning theory predicts; the finding is evidence against cupboard love, not for it (AO3 1).
4. Strength: Tomasz's father always comes when he cries at night and plays with him every evening (AO2 1), so if attention and comfort are treated as rewards, the father is the most rewarding person in Tomasz's life and becomes the strongest secondary reinforcer, which fits his running to his father when frightened (AO3 1). Weakness: Tomasz's grandmother gives him most of his meals, yet he is most upset when his father leaves (AO2 1), whereas the classic learning theory predicts the main attachment should be to the main feeder; this matches Schaffer and Emerson (1964), where 39% of babies' main attachment figure was not their main carer (AO3 1). Answers that describe learning theory with no detail of Tomasz, his grandmother's meals or his father's night-time care score 0.
5. Plan for an 8-mark Evaluate (AO1 4, AO3 4). AO1: classical conditioning (food UCS, caregiver NS to CS, pleasure CR); drive reduction (hunger as primary drive, caregiver as secondary reinforcer, Dollard and Miller, 1950); social learning (modelling of affection, Hay and Vespo, 1988; reinforcement of affectionate behaviour); attachment as learned and changeable. AO3 chains: Harlow (1958) found monkeys clung to a cloth mother that gave no food, so contact comfort, not food, produced the bond; Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found 39% of babies' main attachment was not their main carer and responsiveness mattered most, against the feeding prediction; the mechanisms are well supported by experiments on learning, and O'Connor et al. (2013) found a social learning parenting programme improved parents' sensitive responding, so learning-based ideas can change attachment-related parenting; but the theory is reductionist, ignoring temperament and innate readiness, and relies on animal research that may not generalise to human emotional bonds. Conclusion: learning theory is right that experience and responsiveness shape attachment, and its social learning side is useful for parenting programmes, but the cupboard-love claim that food is the basis of the bond is contradicted by Harlow and by Schaffer and Emerson, so on its own it is a weak explanation of why attachment forms. Level 4 (7-8) needs accurate, well-developed knowledge and chains on both sides leading to a balanced conclusion like this one; a description of conditioning with "this is reductionist" added stays in Level 2.