Animal Studies of Attachment Flashcards
1
Q
What was Lorenz’s method?
A
- Investigated the idea of imprinting
- Took a clutch of goose eggs and divided them into 2 groups: control was left with natural mother whereas experiment were placed in an incubator
- When experimental hatched the first moving thing they saw and had contact with was Lorenz
- The behaviour of the goslings was then observed by Lorenz while he interacted with them
2
Q
What were Lorenz’s findings?
A
- Experimental group followed Lorenz everywhere wheareas the control group followed the mother goose
- The experimental group showed no recognition of their natural mother
- A young animal will form an attachment to a moving object it observes in its critical period (up to 2 days). Lack of such an object will mean failure to form a primary attachment
- Animals - especially birds - will choose to mate with the same kind of animal they imprinted on. This is known as sexual imprinting
3
Q
What were Lorenz’s conclusions?
A
- Animals form attachment through imprinting
- Animals have an evolutionary need to form attachments in order to enhance their chances of survival
4
Q
What was Harlow’s method?
A
- Placed rhesus monkeys that were raised in isolation until 8 months old in cages with 2 surrogate mothers
- One mother was made of wire and dispensed food
- The other mother was made of a wooden block covered in a soft towel to provide comfort to the monkeys
5
Q
What were Harlow’s findings?
A
- Baby monkeys spent more time with the towel mother than the wire mother to seek comfort
- When they were frightened they always went to the towel mother
- This shows that contact comfort is more important than food to monkeys in attachment behaviour
- In his follow up her found that in later life even those that did have contact comfort developed abnormally showing abnormal behaviour in social interactions and mating behaviours with other monkeys
- This was due to them missing their critical period of up to 90 days after birth and not forming healthy attachments during this period
6
Q
What were Harlow’s conclusions?
A
- Food may not necessarily lead to ttachment but rather contact comfort determines attachment
- Contact comfort and social interaction is a key factor in attachment
- Learning Theory of attachment is too simplistic
7
Q
How does Guiton support Lorenz?
A
- A strength of Lorenz’s animal research is that there’s supporting evidence for the idea of sexual imprinting
- Guiton found that when leghorn chicks were fed using a yellow glove in their first few weeks of life they imprinted on the gloves
- Guiton also found that male chickens later tried to mate with the gloves
- This is a strength because it shows that young animals are not born with the innate desire to imprint to a specific animal but will bond with any moving thing that is present during their critical period
- This demonstrates the importance of imprinting on attachment formation in animals and shows that imprinting can also affect the characteristics of a desirable mate
- This validates Lorenz’s conclusions
8
Q
How is animal extrapolation a weakness?
A
- A weakness of animal research into attachment is that it is difficult to extrapolate findings to humans
- It is clear that human infants are significantly more complex that animals (e.g., showing much greater emotional attachments to adults)
- Additionally, and significantly, the critical period appears to be very different in human infants (0 - 2 years) (Bowlby) compared to rhesus monkeys (90 days) and geese (up to 2 days)
- This is a weakness as it makes it difficult to generalise the findings of Lorenz and Harlow directly to humans because attachment behaviour and critical period are very different between humans and animals
- Thus, animal research into attachment reduces in validity when applying it to understand human attachment
9
Q
How are ethical issues a weakness of Harlow’s study?
A
- A weakness of Harlow’s animal study into attachment is that there were ethical issues
- For instance the rhesus monkeys suffered due to the procedures of the experiment, both physically and emotionally (e.g., when Harlow deliberately scared them)
- Since this species is considered similar to humans, the suffering is taken more seriously, making the research appear even less ethical
- Moreover, the damage caused was long term since many of the monkeys could NOT have normal sexual or social activity when older
- This shows that Harlow’s research caused serious physical and psychological harm to monkeys
- Thus, the credibility of Harlow’s research decreases.
10
Q
What are the reasons animal studies may have implications for human attachment?
(food+ IWM)
A
- Evidence from Harlow on the importance of contact comfort helped shape theories of human attachment. This meant that researchers turned away from learning theory as food was no longer seen as key in attachment
- Shows the damaging effects of poor early attachment as Harlow’s monkeys had problems with social relationships and mating. This shaped the idea for the internal working model in humans and negative effects of negative attachment on future relationships
11
Q
What is a reason that animal studies are not relevant to human attachment?
A
- A weakness of animal research into attachment is that it is difficult to extrapolate findings to humans
- It is clear that human infants are significantly more complex that animals (e.g., showing much greater emotional attachments to adults)
- Additionally, and significantly, the critical period appears to be very different in human infants (0 - 2 years) (Bowlby) compared to rhesus monkeys (90 days) and geese (up to 2 days)
- This is a weakness as it makes it difficult to generalise the findings of Lorenz and Harlow directly to humans because attachment behaviour and critical period are very different between humans and animals
- Thus, animal research into attachment reduces in validity when applying it to understand human attachment
