Animal Studies Of Attachment Flashcards
What do animal studies of attachment look at?
How infants form attachment bonds
attachment like behaviour is common to a range of species and so they can help us to understand attachment in humans.
What did early views of attachment suggest about social interaction between caregivers and infants?
social interaction between caregivers and infants was unimportant
was true of both human and non-human species.
What did early views of attachment suggest that babies attach for?
They suggested that babies attach to their mother primarily to receive food (cupboard love theory). Attachments are based on physiological ‘love’ rather than comfort and psychological ‘love’.
What was the aim of Harlow’s investigation?
To investigate the behaviour of infant moneys separated from their mother at birth to assess the effects of separation on later behaviour.
Describe the procedure of Harlow’s study into effects of separation.
(6 marks)
Harlow reared 16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’:
In one condition, milk was dispensed by the plain wire ‘mother’.
In a second condition, it was dispensed by a cloth-covered ‘mother’.
The monkeys preference for which ‘mother’ was measured.
As a further measure of attachment-like behaviour, the reactions of the monkeys to more frightening situations were observed. For example, Harlow placed the monkeys in novel situations with novel objects. He also added a noise making teddy bear to the environment.
Harlow studied the monkeys who had been deprived of their mother into adulthood and studied the negative effects
Describe the findings of Harlow’s Rhesus Monkeys
1
2
3
1) form attachment due to contact comfort
-monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wife one regardless of which dispensed milk. Refutes CLT
2) critical period for attachments to occur. A mother figure had to be introduced to the young rhesus monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this time, attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation was irreversible.
3) maternal deprivation produced severe consequences: the monkeys were more aggressive, less sociable and less skilled at mating than other monkeys. They also neglected and sometimes killed their own offspring. - Support maternal deprivation theory.
What two important conclusions can be made from Harlow’s study?
The monkeys’ early experiences seemed to have led to emotional problems, resulting in delinquent and anti-social behaviour. This supports Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory.
Secondly the study showed that infants do not attach primarily for food but for contact comfort. This contradicts the learning theory/’cupboard love’ theory of attachment
EVALUATION OF HARLOW’S RESEARCH
L
S
L
Limitation- ethical issues
Strength- important practical applications
Limitation low generalisability
EVALUATION OF HARLOW’S RESEARCH
strength is that Harlow’s research has important practical applications
A strength is that Harlow’s research has important practical applications. It has helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and to intervene to prevent it. We also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild.
The usefulness of Harlow’s research increases its value.
EVALUATION OF HARLOW’S RESEARCH
Ethical issues
Rhesus monkeys are similar enough to humans for us to generalise findings, which also means their suffering was presumably human-like.
There were some very disturbing features of Harlow’s research.
He referred to the wire mothers as ‘iron maidens’ after a medieval torture device.
To test the effects of a cold, rejecting parent, the monkeys were sometimes stabbed with a sharp object when they tried to approach the cloth mother.
The counter-argument is that Harlow’s research was sufficiently important to justify the procedures - though many would disagree.
EVALUATION OF HARLOW’S RESEARCH
Low generalisability.
Although monkeys are clearly more similar to humans than Lorenz’s geese, they are not humans. For example, human babies develop speech-like communication (‘babbling’). This may influence the formation of attachments. Psychologists disagree on the extent to which studies of non-human primates can be generalised to humans.
Describe the work of Lorenz into imprinting and the critical period
Lorenz studied innate following behaviour demonstrated by Greylag Geese.
found that they would follow and attach themselves to the first moving object they saw. This was known as imprinting.
Lorenz randomly divided 12 goose eggs, half hatched with the mother goose in natural environment
half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz. All goslings were mixed together to see who they would follow.
Lorenz also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour.
The results showed that the incubator group followed Lorenz, and the control group followed the mother.
Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting need to take place e.g. A few hours after hatching. If imprinting did not occur within that time, chicks did not attach themselves to the mother figure.
Findings of Lorenz
1
2
1) Greylag geese imprinted on first moving object - Lorenz
2) Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting need to take place e.g. A few hours after hatching. If imprinting did not occur within that time, chicks did not attach themselves to the mother figure.
Describe the work of Lorenz into sexual imprinting
He found that geese would should show courtship behaviour against the fury moving object seen
Support: Peacock and tortoises
Lorenz evaluation
L
S
L
Limitation- Greylag goose are not mammals.
Mammals show more attachment than no. Mammals
Low generalisability
Strength: Guiton research support
Yellow gloves and chicks
Limitation: Guiton imprinting is exaggerated
With experience the chicks began to mate with their own special and not the gloves. So it not all or nothing like like Lorenz said and effects of imprinting not long lasting.
