Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

Lorenz’s research - procedure

Answer 1

• randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs
• half eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment
• half hatched in incubator where first moving object they saw was Lorenz

Question 2

Lorenz research - findings

Answer 2

• incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere
• control group hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her
• when 2 groups were mixed the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz
• IMPRINTING - whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see
• critical period –> imprinting needs to take place
• depending on species this can be as brief as a few hours after birth
• if imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure

Question 3

Lorenz - Sexual Imprinting

Answer 3

• observed that birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans
• peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises.
• as an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises.
• concluded that this means he had undergone sexual imprinting

Question 4

Harlow’s research - Procedure

Answer 4

• tested idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother
• 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model ‘ mothers’
• in one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother
• in second condition the milk was dispensed by cloth covered mother

Question 5

Harlow’s research - Findings

Answer 5

• baby monkeys cuddled soft object in preference to the wire one
• sought comfort from cloth mother when frightened regardless of what dispensed milk
• ‘contact comfort’

Question 6

Maternally deprived monkeys as adults

Answer 6

• early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect
• monkeys reared with wire mothers only were most dysfunctional
• reared with soft toy as substitute did not develop normal social behaviour
• more aggressive and less sociable
• bred less often = unskilled at mating
• neglected their young
• some attacked their children

Question 7

Harlow - The critical period for normal development

Answer 7

a mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form
- early deprivation became irreversible