Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
Outline Harlow’s study.
Harlow reared 16 baby monkeys with two model ‘mothers’. (One wire and one cloth)
The wire mother provided food and the cloth mother provided comfort.
What were the findings of Harlow’s study?
The baby monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother than the wire mother.
The monkeys ran to the mother when frightened so she acted as a secure base.
What can we conclude from Harlow’s research?
Comfort is more important than food when forming an attachment bond.
What happened when Harlow followed the monkeys who had been deprived of their real mothers into adulthood?
Maternal deprivation had severe consequences.
The monkeys reared with only wire mothers were the most dysfunctional.
Even those reared with a cloth mother did not show normal behaviours.
The monkeys were aggressive and less social.
When the monkeys became mothers they rejected, killed or attacked their young.
What did Harlows research lead them to conclude?
There is a critical period of 90 days and if a mother figure has not been introduced in this time then attachment was impossible.
Give a strength of Harlows research.
One strength of Harlows research conducted on baby monkeys is that it has important real world application.
For example, it has helped social workers and psychologists understand that a lack of a bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development.
Therefore, they can step in to prevent any negative outcomes.
Harlows research is practical and not just theoretical.
Give a limitation of Harlow’s research (generalisability).
One limitation of Harlows research is that we cannot generalise its findings to humans as it is an experiment conducted on monkeys.
Although monkeys are more similar to humans than the birds in Lorenz’s study, the human brain is much more complicated than a monkeys and behaviour in humans is more complex.
Therefore, we cannot generalise the study to humans completely.
Give a limitation of Harlow’s research (ethics).
One limitation of Harlows research is that it can be said to have been conducted unethically. For example, Harlows research caused severe long-term distress on the monkeys and deprived them of their mother during the experiment. Therefore, these ethical issues can be considered unjustifiable.
Outline Lorenz’s procedure.
Lorenz randomly divided a large group of goose eggs and half were hatched with a mother goose (the control group) and half in an incubator with the first moving object they will see to be Lorenz.
What did Lorenz intend to investigate?
The phenomenon of imprinting.
What were the findings of Lorenz’ study?
The goslings who hatched in the incubator followed Lorenz.
The goslings who hatched with their mother followed their mother.
This is shows imprinting.
Lorenz also observed that some birds would display mating behaviours to whichever species they first imprinted on. This is called sexual imprinting.
What is imprinting in the context of lorenz?
A bird will from birth attach to the first moving object they see.
What did Lorenz conclude from his research?
Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting must take place or the chicks will not form an attachment.
In some species this can be from birth to a few hours after.
Give a strength of Lorenz’s research.
One strength of Lorenz’s research is the existence of supporting research on ‘imprinting’.
For example, a study by Regolin and Vallortiagra (1995) supports the concept of ‘imprinting’. Chicks were exposed to shape combinations which moved and a range of combinations were shown.
The chicks followed the original shape pattern they saw.
This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object in the critical period.
Give a limitation of Lorenz’s research.
One limitation of Lorenz’s research is that research from bird studies cannot be generalised to humans.
The mammalian brain is quite different and more complex than birds.
For example, in mammals attachment is a two way process meaning that the mothers become attached emotionally to their babies as well as the baby to the mother.
This is a weakness as it suggests that Lorenz’s research has limited generalisability.
