Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
who conducted a study with monkeys?
Harlow
who conducted a study with goslings?
Lorenz
what was Harlow’s study?
infant Rhesus monkeys were separated from there mothers and placed in isolation. in their cages were two artificial ‘mothers’, one wire one that dispensed milk and one soft cloth one that did not. the monkeys spent much of their time clinging to their cloth mother and would run to it when startled.
This showed comfort contact was more important then food in terms of attachment behaviour. however, these monkeys did not develop normal social behaviour, when they reached adulthood the monkeys had problems socialising with other monkeys. for example they were very aggressive and unskilled at mating. they also neglected and sometimes killed their own offspring .
•the monkeys had experienced maternal deprivation which had a permanent effect on them
some key terms in Harlow’s study
•isolation
•maternal depravation
•contact comfort
•aggressive
what was Lorenz’s study?
He was interested in imprinting. this is the process whereby birds which can move immediately after hatching attach to and follow the first moving object they see. He set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs.
Half were hatched with their mother goose ( the control group) and half were hatched in an incubator in the presence of Lorenz himself. The incubator group imprinted on Lorenz and followed him everywhere, whereas the control group imprinted on the mother and followed her. This behaviour continued even when the groups were mixed up
•in further research, Lorenz observed that imprinting must occur within the first few hours of hatching (the critical period) otherwise it won’t occur and the goslings fail to form an attachment
•Lorenz also observed that the objects the goslings imprint on determines their mating preference in later life ( sexual imprinting). Lorenz found that the goslings which imprinted on him later displayed courtship behaviour towards humans when they became adult geese
Key terms from Lorenz’s study
•Irreversible
•imprinting
•critical period
•sexual imprinting
strength of Lorenz’s study
•there is support for the concept of imprinting
•Guiton (1966) found that chicks imprinted on yellow washing up gloves and would try and mate with them as adults
•this suggests that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development
limitation of Lorenz’s study: findings cannot be generalised
•the mammalian attachment system is quite different to that in birds
•for example, mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their young
•this means that it is not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas to humans
limitation of Lorenz’s study: some of his conclusions have been questioned
•Guiton (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing-up gloves tried to mate with them as adults
•but with experience they learned to mate with their own kind
•this study suggests that the effects of imprinting are not as long-lasting as Lorenz’s believed
3 evaluation points of Lorenz’s study
strength: support for the concept of imprinting
limitation: findings cannot be generalised
limitation: some of his conclusions have been questioned
3 evaluation points for Harlow’s study
strength: his research has important practical applications
limitation: the ethics of his research
limitation: generalising from monkeys to humans
strength of harlow’s study
•his research has important practical applications
•it has helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse and so can intervene to prevent it (Howe 1998)
•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
limitation of Harlow’s study: the ethics of his research
•Rhesus monkeys are similar enough to humans for us to generalise findings, which also means their suffering was presumable human-like
•Harlow himself was aware of the suffering cause, he referred to the wire mothers as ‘iron maidens’ (named after a medical torture device)
•the counter argument is that Harlow’s research was sufficiently important to justify the procedures
limitation of Harlow’s study: generalising from monkeys to humans
•although monkeys are clearly more similar to humans then Lorenz’s geese, they are not humans.
•for example, human babies develop speech-like communication (e.g. babbling). this may influence the formation of attachment
•psychologists disagree on the extent to which studies of non-human primates can be generalised to humans
what is the explanation of attachment called that involves cc?
learning theory: classical conditioning
