Animal Studies Of Attachment Flashcards
Explain imprinting
Lorenz first observed the phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child and a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling that then followed him around.
Lorenz’s procedure
Lorenz set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment. The other half hatched on an incubator where there first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
Lorenz’s findings
The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group, hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her. When the 2 groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz. This phenomenon is called imprinting-whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting takes place, depending on the species this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching. If imprinting doesnt occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks didnt attach themselves to a mother figure
Sexual imprinting
Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences. He observed that bitfd that imprinted on a human word often later displayed courtship behaviour towards humans. In a case study Lorenz describee a peacock after hatching where the first moving objects the peacock saw were giant tortoises. As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises. Lorenz concluded that this meant he had undergone sexual imprinting.
Harlows research
Harlow worker with rhesus monkeys, which are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds. He observed that newborns kept alone in a bare cage usually died but thay they usually survived if given something soft like a cloth to cuddle.
Harlows procedure
Tested the idea thay a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’. In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother.
Harlows findings
The baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk. This showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
Harlow and colleagues also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect… what did they find?
Found severe consequences. The monkeys reared with wire mother only were the most dysfunctional; however, even those reared with a soft toy didmt develop normal social behaviour. They were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys and bred less often than typical for monkeys. As mothers some if the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, even killing them in some cases.
Critical period for normal development (harlow)
Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for this behaviour- a mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for am attachment to form. After this time attachment was impossible and the damage early deprivation caused became irreversible
AO3-Lorenz genersability issue
Although some of his findings have influenced our understanding of human development, there is a problem generalising from findings on birds to humans. It seems that the mammalian attachment system is quite different from that in birds. For example, mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to young than do birds, and mammals may be able to form attachments at any time, albeit less easily than in infancy. This means that its not appropriate to try to generalise any of Lorenz’s ideas to humans .
AO3- Some of Lorenz’s observations have been questioned
Later researchers have questioned some of Lorenz’s conclusions. For example, the idea that imprininting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour. Guitpn et al found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults, but that with experience they eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens. This suggests thay the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour I’d not permanent as Lorenz believed.
AO3- theoretical value
Harlow’s findings have had a profound effect on psychologists understanding of human mother-infant attachment. Most importantly harlow showed that attachment doesnt develop as the result of being fed by a mother figure but as a result of contact comfort. Harlow also showed us the importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development including the ability to hold down adult relationships and successfully rear children.
AO3- practical value
The insight into attachment from Harlow’s research has had important applications in a range of practical contexts. E.g it has helped social workers understand the risk factors in child neglect and abuse and so intervene to prevent it. Of course there findings are also important in the care of captive monkeys; we now understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and also breeding programmes in the wild.
