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Dollard and Miller Attachment Theory

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John Dollard and Neal Elgar Miller were two American psychologists and professors who proposed the behavioral theory of attachment that suggests that attachment is comprised of a series of learned behaviors. They believed that children learn to form connections between the food provider, which is most often the mother, and the comfort of being fed through the process of classical conditioning, where the child learns to seeks comfort through contact with the mother.[1] There are four fundamental processes that are instrumental for learned behaviors of the attachment theory to take place: drive, cue, response and reward.[2]

Authors and Attachment Theory Background

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Dollard and Miller have received recognition for their interest and contribution in constructing a psychotherapy that was based on the social learning theory of attachment[3] by Albert Bandura. The works of Dollard and Miller were also influenced by John Bowlby who coined the term attachment theory and suggested innate comportment may be adjusted in response to an objective.[4] Dollard was a pioneer in the multiple integrated branches of social and behavioral sciences.[3] Miller is considered one of the most highly appraised learning theorists and experimentalists of the 20th century[2]. Together, they have made various contributions in written works explaining their collaboration and the significance of their attachment theory.

Learning Theory of Attachment

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Dollard and Miller proposed a theory in which attachment is comprised of a series of learned behaviors. They suggested that the provision of food is the foundation for the learning of attachment. Thus, an infant will create a bond regardless of who feeds it.[1] The proposed theory did not share the same views of John Bowlby and James Robertson, who clearly expressed in their three phases of emotional response that a child is subject to experience intense distress in the event that it becomes separated from the mother, even if fed by another caregiver. [5]

Figure 45 07 07

Dollard and Miller’s theory of attachment states that children learn to connect the food provider, which is most often the mother or any primary caregiver, with the comfort of being fed. This occurs through the process of classical conditioning, where the infant associates comfort when it is in contact with the mother.[1] They suggested that ultimately, the child will form attachment with the caregiver that provides food. In addition, they advocated that learning is a blind operation, meaning that it is not dependent on what is seen but rather works through the behavioral process of reward and punishment.[6] Therefore, for attachment to materialize, behaviors are learned rather than inborn.

The theory consists of four fundamental processes that are instrumental to the learning process: drive, cue, response and reward. Drive, or motivation, urges and directs action toward solving a recognized need. A cue, or stimulus, is a sign emphasized by that drive as possibly pointing the way to a need’s solution. The response is any particular solution-seeking action that is directed to that cue. A reward, or reinforcement, is the fortifier of those response-to-cue associations, leading to the reduction of the need.[2]

Authors Major Works

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Dollard, John; Miller, Neal E (1950). Personality and Psychotherapy: An Analysis in Terms of Learning, Thinking, and Culture (1st ed.). McGraw-Hill.
  2. ^ a b c Coons, Edgar E (2002). "Neal Elgar Miller (1909-2002)". American Psychologist. 57 (10): 784–786. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.57.10.784. ISSN 1935-990X.
  3. ^ a b Noel,, Sheehy, (July 2002). Biographical Dictionary of Psychology. Chapman, Antony J.,, Conroy, Wendy A.,. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781136798849. OCLC 506894661.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Attachment theory", Wikipedia, 2019-02-23, retrieved 2019-02-25
  5. ^ van der Horst, Frank C. P.; van der Veer, René (2009-03). "Separation and divergence: The untold story of James Robertson's and John Bowlby's theoretical dispute on mother-child separation". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 45 (3): 236–252. doi:10.1002/jhbs.20380. ISSN 0022-5061. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Diller, Leonard; Diller, Juliet C (1952). "Dollard, J., & Miller, N. E. Personality and Psychotherapy". Journal of Social Psychology. 36: 10 – via Periodicals Archive Online.
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* [http://www.psychteacher.co.uk/attachment/learning-theory-of-attachment.html]

* [https://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html]