"Discuss two explanations of attachment"

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Lisa Howarth        Psychology        
Dave Berry

“Discuss two explanations of attachment”

(18 marks)

        Attachment is a close, emotional, and reciprocal bond between an infant and its primary caregiver. Freud developed the ‘Cupboard Love’ theory, Freud believed that infants have an innate desire for pleasure and this motivates the infants to seek satisfaction. The first stage is the oral stage which is from birth to 2 years; this is when pleasure is gained orally and stimulation around the mouth. This case would be the pleasure gained from breast feeding, according to Freud this is the only reason why an infant forms an attachment to the mother because she meets their need for pleasure orally and also that the mother is unique and this is the first and strongest love-object and later relationships will go well if this one does.

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        Freud says that attachment is based on feeding but there is evidence that goes against the idea e.g. Harlow Et Al studied the Rhesus monkeys and found that food was not the most important factor but found comfort was more important. The infant monkeys were taken from their mothers at birth and placed in a cage with 2 surrogate mothers, one mother was made of wire and the other was covered in cloth, milk was provided by the wire mother. Harlow found that the monkeys spent most time with the cloth mother and ran to them when they were frightened, ...

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