Animal Studies Of Attachment

Question 1

What is imprinting?

Answer 1

An innate drive to attach to the first moving thing an animal sees after birth

Question 2

Who researched imprinting in goslings?

Answer 2

Lorenz (1935)

Question 3

What was Lorenz’s procedure? (3 steps)

Answer 3

1. Randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs into 2 groups
2. A control was left with the mother, the other group was incubated by him and he was the first moving thing they saw
3. He tagged the goslings that he had hatched so that he knew which group was which

Question 4

What did Lorenz find?

Answer 4

When all goslings were put together, the ones that hatched with the mother followed her, and the ones that hatched with Lorenz followed him.

Question 5

What did Lorenz conclude about the process of imprinting?

Answer 5

That it occurs during a ‘critical period’ of time. For geese, this was between 13-16 hours after hatching

Question 6

What did Lorenz say about the possibility of imprinting after the critical period had passed?

Answer 6

The birds will never be able to imprint after the critical period

Question 7

What did Lorenz say about the longevity of imprinting?

Answer 7

It lasts a lifetime

Question 8

What is a limitation of Lorenz’s research? (Application)

Answer 8

We can’t apply his findings to human attachment behaviour because the development of human attachments is affected by emotion and complicated thought processes.

Question 9

Which research suggests that the consequences of imprinting may be ‘unlearned’ and not permanent?

Answer 9

Guiton et al - Chickens that had imprinted on yellow rubber gloves tried to mate with them at first but soon learned to mate with other chickens

Question 10

Who investigated the importance of contact comfort in attachment formation?

Answer 10

Harlow (1959)

Question 11

What animals did Harlow use in his research?

Answer 11

Baby rhesus monkeys

Question 12

What was Harlow’s procedure? (3 steps)

Answer 12

1. Baby rhesus monkeys were raised in isolation with 2 ‘surrogate’ mothers
2. One mother was made of a wire mesh and dispensed food, and the other was made of cloth but didn’t dispense food
3. He would add fearful stimuli (e.g. loud noises or big toys) to see the reaction of the baby rhesus monkeys

Question 13

What did Harlow find?

Answer 13

He found that monkeys spent more time with the cloth mothers even though they did not provide food. When a fearful stimulus was added, monkeys sought the comfort from the cloth mother.

Question 14

What did Harlow conclude from his research?

Answer 14

That contact comfort is a more important factor in attachment than food

Question 15

What happened to the monkeys used in Harlow’s study?

Answer 15

When they grew up they showed signs of social and emotional disturbance

Question 16

What happened to the female monkeys used in Harlow’s experiment?

Answer 16

They were bad mothers and were often violent towards their offspring

Question 17

What is a strength of Harlow’s research? (Real life application)

Answer 17

Improvements and changes made to the upbringing of children in care, allowing them to have a better quality of life.

Question 18

What is a limitation of Harlow’s study? (Ethics)

Answer 18

It was extremely unethical, the monkeys were forced into isolation and extremely stressful situations, showing later signs of psychological damage as a result.

Question 19

Why can we question the reliability of Harlow’s findings?

Answer 19

Due to ethical guidelines now in place, his study cannot be replicated to see if results would be the same.