Operant conditioning refers to voluntary behaviour and the concept of reinforcement and punishment; behaviour is influenced in the future by its learned consequences. For instance if a baby cries and its caregiver responds, the baby will learn to cry to get that response from its mother. This particular element of the learning theory of attachment goes some way to explaining an infant-caregiver relationship, and is arguably well supported by the responses we see in infants and their caregivers. However, as to whether it is purely on a survival need is arguable - again using Harlow’s monkeys as an example, infants seem to genuinely want to be cared for.
One of the main criticisms of the learning theory is that it is based on evidence from non-humans for the most part. There is a continuity assumption associated with it that what happens to animals is also true for humans unless proven otherwise; it therefore arguably lacks validity in explaining human behaviour as every animal is a different species with different motivations. It also only covers the basic ideas of attachment, for example it does nothing to explain the different stages of attachment and at what point infants begin to change behaviours toward bonded individuals and those they haven’t bonded with. Further to this, it fails to explain how children become independent whilst still attached or bonded because it treats ‘attachment’ as dependence more than anything. Perhaps more crucially with respect to the learning theory, it also does not explain why attachment behaviours are displayed by an infant even if they are mistreated and their physiological needs are not met.
It is necessary therefore to consider other theories of attachment; one of the most famous and arguably most important is Bowlby’s. Bowlby suggests that we have a genetic predisposition to find someone to bond with which is quite possible and hard to disprove, and similarly a mother has such a predisposition to bond and form an attachment with her infant. However, this is perhaps not developed from the time a baby is born, or else you could argue that a mother would never give a healthy baby up for adoption. Whilst it would obviously be a very difficult decision to make either way, it is likely to become much more difficult as time goes on and the attachment starts to grow.
One of Bowlby’s main ideas was that of monotropy; he placed emphasis on their only being one bond. This is significantly countered however by the findings of Schaffer & Emerson, where it was found that in early months and to a greater extent at the six months or more mark, infants had formed three or more bonds. As to whether these bonds are of the same quality or strength is debatable, but it definitely goes a long way toward disproving the idea of monotropy with regard to attachment.
Bowlby’s theory also describes a dynamic system of attachment; if a baby acts a specific way, the mother will respond, and in this way the mother and baby will always be responding to one another and do not let too much distance occur between themselves. This is especially important in developing an infant’s independence and is something that Ainsworth looked at with the Strange Situation. She found that it was babies who were securely attached who were happier to move further away from their care givers and explore more independently when they were absent. With more insecure attachments, the infants became distressed if separated, which perhaps hints that, as according to Bowlby’s theory, maybe some crucial action-response situations earlier on in the infant’s life were not satisfactorily dealt with.
One of the main criticisms of Bowlby’s theory, which is again challenged by Schaffer & Emerson’s study, is that fathers are not of any direct emotional importance for the baby. Bowlby saw the father as financial and emotional support for the mother, but as has been shown by others, fathers can be attachment figures in their own right. Following on from this, Schaffer & Emerson also found, as described, multiple attachments to be the rule rather than the exception as according to Bowlby. Up until the discriminate attachment phase (when they begin to distinctly identify strangers), babies and infants also display a range of attachment behaviours to people other than their own mother as Bowlby suggests.
These two theories go some way toward explaining attachment and the behaviours displayed, however it could be argued that in some respects they are incomplete and perhaps a bit dated, so it is best to look to and also consider studies by more recent psychologists such as Schaffer & Emerson and Ainsworth in order to properly understand the mechanics of attachment today.
