animal studies of attachment Flashcards
what did Lorenz study
Lorenz investigated imprinting- an innate need to attach to a living creature in order to survive.
describe the procedure Lorenz used
divided a clutch of goslings in half. half hatched with the mother goose and the other half hatched with an incubator where the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz
what were Lorenz’s findings?
He found that when he was the first living creature seen by a group of newly-hatched goslings, the goslings followed him around everywhere- they had imprinted on him. Lorenz suggested there is a critical period in which this must happen, or it will not happen at all.
what is sexual imprinting?
form of learned mate preference for a trait that an individual has observed in its population.
one limitation of Lorenz
P- there is a problem in generalising from
findings on birds to humans.
E- the mammalian attachment system is
different from that in birds.
T- This means that it is not appropriate to try to generalise any of Lorenz’s ideas to humans.
another limitation of Lorenz (guiton)
p- there is research to suggest that the consequences of imprinting may be ‘unlearned’,
E- Guiton et al.’s study showed that chickens who had imprinted on yellow rubber gloves showed courtship behaviour towards gloves at first (and tried to mate with them), but then learned to mate with other chickens.
T-This suggests Lorenz overstated the effects of imprinting.
what did Harlow study?
tested the effect of contact comfort in attachment formation with rhesus monkeys.
describe the procedure Harlow used
16 baby monkeys were reared with two wire ‘mothers’, equipped with a feeding bottle, with one covered in soft cloth.
Harlow’s findings
It was found that the monkeys sought comfort from the cloth mother when frightened, and spent more time cuddling it, suggesting that comfort was a more important factor in attachment than food.
maternally deprived monkeys
monkeys involved in the study had problems as adults, for example social dysfunction, aggression, problems mating, and poor parenting skills. This suggests that being maternally deprived as an infant will have lifelong consequences.
Harlow’s critical period
attachment must be formed (90 days for monkeys), or it will never form.
one strength of Harlow’s study
P- important implications for the understanding of attachment,
E-for example that comfort is more important than food, and the consequences of not forming an attachment.
T- This increases its usefulness.
another strength of Harlow’s study
The lessons from the research has led to practical applications, for example how animals are reared in captivity, but also in humans (for example, for social workers to understand and prevent risk and abuse of children).
one limitation of Harlow’s study
P- Harlow’s research was ethically unjustifiable, due to the suffering caused by the monkeys and the long-term damage.
E- the species are similar enough to humans to generalise the findings meaning the suffering they faced must be similar to how humans feel.
However, the findings were arguably important enough to justify this harm.
