Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
What are the two main key animal studies?
Lorenz (1952)
Harlow (1958)
What was Lorenz’ study?
Divided 12 goose eggs
Half hatched in an incubator
Half in natural environment
Imprinted on first object to be seen
Mixed them up and observed their later courtship behaviours
What were the findings Lorenz’ study?
Control group followed mother
Incubator goslings followed Lorenz
Critical period in imprinting and if imprinting did not occur they did not attach to a mother figure
Sexual imprinting occurs - try to mate with humans if imprinted on them
What was the procedure of Harlow’s study?
16 monkeys
Wired monkey with milk
Wired monkey covered in cloths
Monkeys preferences were measured
Longitudinal study
What were the findings of Harlow’s study
Baby monkeys preferred comfort over food
Those deprived of real mother shown aggression
less sociable, less skilled
What did Guiton find?
Chick imprinting on yellow washing up cloths but when mating they found their own species to mate with
What is the limitation of an animal study?
Hard to be generalised to a human species
What practical application did Harlows research have?
Helped social workers understand the risks of abuse and how to intervene it
What problems are there with generalisability
Green (1994) states that, on a biological level at least, all mammals have the same brain structured as humans.
However neither sample are human and so it is argued that we can not necessarily generalise Harlow or Lorenz’ research to human attachments
What are the costs of animal studies into attachment?
Animals have a right not to be researched on/harmed in the pursuit of academic gain
Human benefits hugely detrimental to non-human species. Even more so if we agree that generalisations are limited
