Animal Studies of Attachment Flashcards
Why have people used animal studys in the past for attatchment research?
Look at the formation of early bonds between non-human and their off spring
What is ethology?
Ethologists are biologists who study animals behaviour in their natural environment
What was Konrad Lorenz interested in and what did he observe during his research?
- Interested in how young animals attatch to their mothers and how this increased their chance of survival
- He Observed the phenomenon of imprinting
What was the procedure for Lorenz’s study?
- Adult human talks to egg- imprint by voice
- Egg hatches in lab without natural adult
- Hatchling recongises adult human via voice and looks- imprint but image
- Hatchlings grow together
- Only see adult human for first few days of its life (had two conditions within this)
What were the two conditions Lorenz had in his study?
Condition 1: He was the first moving object the hatchlings saw
Condition 2: Mother goose was the first moving object
Results:
Condition 1: Followed him and performed mating displays to him
Condition 2: Followed mother but performed mating display to other geese
What was the result of Lorenz’s study?
When adult human leaves- hatchling’s chase them - imprinting=attatchment
What was Harlows monkey experiment?
Had two fake ‘mother monkeys’:
Wire mother - Feed monkey & only seen 1 hour a day
Cloth mother- Comforted monkey (soft) seen rest of the day
What were Harlow’s findings?
The monkey became most attatched to the cloth mother which provided contact comfort
Cuddled with cloth mother eventhough wire mother dispensed food
Early separation had adverse effects on monkey
Monkeys who were not shown affection or could not cuddle with cloth mother had trouble gaining weight- researchers believe affection has a larger impact.
What was one strength of Lorenzos research?
Is that he discovered how the process of ‘imprinting’ was a natural instinct.
Evaluate Lorenz’s study
Exp has high ecological validity due to the fact it was carried out in a field
High internal validity as it accomplished what the experiments aim was in the first place
HOWEVER…
Not generalisable to human population due to multiple factors such as chicks hatch more developed than human babies
What were some issues of Harlow’s study?
Unethical:
- Such as early separation from baby monkey & mother monkey
- Monkey is shown no real affection as both ‘mothers’ are fake
- Monkey also had trouble gaining weight which led to researchers believe that affection had a large impact
- Monkey had also been scared by the researchers in order to see which ‘mother’ it would go to
What was one strength of Harlow’s research?
- Its important real world applications
e.g. helped social workers & clinical psychologists etc understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development - Allowing them to intervein to prevent poor outcomes
- This means the value of Harlows research is not just theoretical put practical
What is one limitation of Harlow’s research?
It is quite difficult to generalise findings & conclusions from monkeys to humans
Human brain & Human behaviour is more complex than monkeys
Meaning it may not be apporpriate & accurate to generalise Harlows findings to humans
