PSYCH 3JJ3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: John Bowlby, Operant Conditioning
11 Dec 2019
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Document Summary
A strong emotional bond that forms between infant and caregiver in the second half of the child"s first year. The development of attachment relationships is a major achievement in the infants early social life. Infants become attached to their mother because they associate her with gratification of their instinctual drive to obtain pleasure through sucking and oral stimulation. Drive-reduction learning theorists suggested that the mother becomes an attachment object because she is associated with the reduction of the baby"s primary drive of hunger. Baby monkeys preferred to cling to the cloth mother - especially in moments of stress even though it dispensed no food. Thus oral gratification and drive reduction are inadequate explanations for attachment. Attachment development based on visual, auditory and tactile stimulation that infants receive from their caregivers. Parents are the most reliable sources of this type of stimulation. Central point: attachment is not automatic; it develops over time as a result of satisfying interactions with responsive adults.
