The behaviourist approach on the other hand, views behavior as something that is learnt rather than innate. Psychologists who follow this approach believe that an attachment is formed as a result of the provision of food by a caretaker, which forms the basis of the “classic conditioning” aspect of this approach. Classic conditioning consists of learning through the association of two things, with one resulting in the other. Terms that are linked to this explanation include, “unconditioned stimulus” and “unconditioned response”, which refer to things that are not learnt, as against stimuli and responses’ that are referred to as “conditional”. Operant conditioning focuses on the learning of behavior through reinforcement and deterrence (eg the receiving of presents for good behavior may be seen as reinforcement, whereas spanking maybe seen as a deterrent for bad behavior). In this case the present or spanking are considered as “primary reinforcers”, as they directly cause the behavior to be learnt or forgotten, whereas the individual who provides the present or spanking is seen as the “secondary reinforcer”. This theory was pioneered by the the psychologists Dollard and Miller (1950).
An example of evidence for the evolutionary theory includes a study that was conducted by psychologists James and Joyce Robertson during the year of 1951. It focused on the effects of deprivation (this refers to the loss of an attachment between an infant and its primary caregiver through separation), and was conducted through video recording in Middlesex Hospital, in which many children were observed. Some of these children were noted to have been in temporary hospital care as well in nurseries. One case that supports the negative effect of deprivation is that of the 17 month old known as John. John was placed in nursery care over a period of 9 days and is examined to have changed over the period. Initially having been a rather cheerful infant, John was examined to have been very distressed at the lack of emotional care he was receiving, despite his physical needs being tended to. The Robertsons state in their book “Separation and the Very Young” (1989), “A few minutes later his father entered the room and John struggled away from his mother into his father’s arms. His crying stopped, and for the first time he looked directly at his mother. It was a long hard look, one she had never seen before.” This is in complete contrast to three different infants studied by the couple, whose parents visited much more frequently than that of John. Upon the return of their parents, the infants were shown to be ecstatic upon being re-united with them. This supports the maternal deprivation hypothesis formed by Bowlby in 1952, as the hypothesis states that it is important for infants to develop an attachment with a primary caregiver and that failure to do so would result in severe emotional and mental issues for the child in the future.
The Strange Situation” study by Mary Ainsworth (1978), examines the behavior of infants under conditions of stress and unfamiliarity as created through the presence of a stranger and separation from their primary caregiver, and therefore measuring the level of separation anxiety and stranger anxiety through eight different episodes lasting 3 minutes each. Through this investigation, three different forms of attachment were discovered which helped to provide evidence for Bowlby’s link of the development of an attachment in relation to psychopathy. Infants that came under the “secure” and “insecure-resistant”form of attachment, were very keen on social interaction and intimacy, as seen in them having a strong willingness to explore. However they did show high levels of stranger anxiety, but this quickly lessened and upon the return of their primary caregiver they were shown to have the most positive response out of the three attachment groups. Those that came under the “insecure-avoidant” type on the other hand showed to have low stranger anxiety and along with the “resistant” form of attachment, responded rather negatively upon the parents return.
This case study has been shown to be rather reliable and consistent with its results. It has been applied by many other psychologists globally such as Wartner (1994), who conducted a similar study in Germany, where he found that 78% of children between the ages of 1-6 years of age also came under the same groups of attachment types, and is currently the main research model used in measuring attachment. However, some psychologists criticise the conclusions that Ainsworth’s study makes, stating that its use of the infant's relationship with their mother as a basis shows a lack of validity. Lamb (1977), reiterates this argument commenting that "The child may have a different type of attachment to the father or grandmother", although this argument can be said to acknowledge Bowlby's theory of monotropy, by accepting the significance of an infant's attachment to its mother.
An example of evidence for the views of those who follow the behaviourist approach, includes the study made by Ivan Pavlov in the 19th century, with regards to the cause of salivation in relation to classical conditioning. Initially, Pavlov was merely working on research regarding digestion within dogs making use of both edible and non-edible items and measuring the amount of saliva that the dogs produced as a result. After noting that the dogs began to salivate in spite of the fact that food was not present, and rather to the sight of his assisstant’s labcoats (the conditioned stimulus), he repeated the experiment using a metronome in order to determine the cause. He later found that the dogs began to associate the food with the metronome(the new unconditioned stimulus), determining that salivation was indeed a learnt process. There has been criticism of this however, with modern psychologists stating that the fact that Pavlov modified their digestive systems for this experiment, made his results unethical, and that it does not acknowledge that dogs may differ from humans when it comes to cognitive processes.
Another experiment that supports some of behaviourist’s theories’ beliefs yet somewhat differs from them is that of a study conducted by Bandura (1965) on aggression. The psychologist Bandura follows the perspectives of social learning theory, which agrees with some of the views of behavioural psychology, however focuses more on the importance of observation and imitation by children of their caretakers. Also unlike behaviourists’, those that follow the ideas of social learning theory, look at cognitive processes in relation to behavior.
In Bandura’s experiment, he observed how children who observed the display of aggression by an adult would later imitate that same behavior later on, depending on factors such as their own sex, as well as the adult’s respectively.The group involved consisted of 36 boys and 36 girls aged between 37-69 months. Upon the conclusion of the experiment it was found that the boys who had male role models, were more likely to imitate their behavior than girls who had female models, yet girls who had either model, showed differing forms of aggression (verbal for female, physical for male). There are criticisms of this experiment, such as the fact that there is no way to determine whether the displays of such behavior have a long-term effect on the children due to the results being collected rather quickly. The quality of the results are also seen as questionable, due to the fact that the child and stranger are not familiar with each other, and that they’re not able to interact effectively.
In conclusion to this therefore, it can be seen that the forming of an attachment is critical to the sound development of a child’s mind as evidence by the findings of biological psychologists such as Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby.
Reference list
- Mike Cardwell, Cara Flanagan, Revised Edition Psychology A.S. The Complete Companion
-
Robert Shaw,
1
2) Operant conditioning-Skinner
