Briefly evaluate learning theory as an explanation of attachment.

Learning theory is a credible approach to attachment as it is founded in pre-existing scientific theory, that the association between the satisfaction of needs and the person satisfying the need will lead to a strong attachment formation. However, this theory is reductionist as it focuses on basic processes rather than complex emotional mechanisms which may play a role in infant attachment. In conjunction to this, the theory is mostly founded on animal research and therefore cannot be fully generalised to human behaviour. Harlow's study discovered that over half of the orphaned rheesus monkeys did not attach to the 'food mother' but rather to the 'cloth mother', suggesting contact comfort is more influential than the mere association of food and providing evidence support against the purely reductionist learning theory.