It is aimed at A' Level psychology students. Behaviourist approach Infants become attached to their caregivers due to the caregivers ability to satisfy the infants instinctual needs. Freud believed that healthy attachments are formed when feeding practices satisfy the infants needs for security, food and oral gratification. Unhealthy attachments occur when the infants are deprived of food and oral pleasure or are over indulged. Infants become attached to those who satisfy their need for nourishment and tend to their physiological needs.
Infants associate their caregivers with gratification.
Their care givers are, therefore, condition reinforcers which means the infant learns to approach them to have their needs satisfied. Eventually this generalises into a feeling of security whenever the care giver is present. Animal Studies of Attachment Harlow's animal experiments Harlow separated rhesus monkeys from their mothers in a number of controlled animal experiments. The surrogate made from wire produced milk. Harlow found that the monkeys spent most of their time clinging to the cloth mother although there was no nourishment to be gained.