Animal studies of Attachment

Question 1

What were the two conditions in Harlow’s study?

Answer 1

1. Milk was with wire mother
2. Milk was with cloth mother

Question 2

What were the findings in Harlow’s study?

Answer 2

All monkeys spent more time with cloth mother, regardless of whether they had the milk or not.

When frightened by a teddy bear, they all clung on the the cloth monkey.

Question 3

What do the findings in Harlow’s study suggest?

Answer 3

Infants form attachments with those who offers them contact comfort, not to those who feed them.

Question 4

Long term effects of Harlow’s study

Answer 4

Developed socially abnormally

Didn’t mate normally

Got frightened whenever they saw another monkey

Question 5

What were the two conditions in Lorenz’s study?

Answer 5

One group hatched with biological mother

One group hatched in an incubator, with Lorenz being the first moving object they saw.

Question 6

What were the findings in Lorenz’s study?

Answer 6

The group with their mother became imprinted and stayed with her.

The group who hatched in the incubator showed no recognition of their biological mother. They had become imprinted on Lorenz and followed him around.

Question 7

Long term effects of Lorenz’s study

Answer 7

Irreversible

They chose to mate with the same species that they were imprinted on

Question 8

AO3

Who had supporting research for imprinting?

Answer 8

Guiton et al.

Chicks imprinted on yellow rubber gloves

Some also tried to mate with them later in life

Supports that imprinting occurs on moving objects that aren’t living or the mother.
Supports that imprinting has an effect on reproductive behaviour

Question 9

AO3

Who criticised imprinting, and what did they say?

Answer 9

Hoffman

Argued imprinting was more ‘plastic and forgiving’

Question 10

AO3

Who found evidence criticising imprinting?

Answer 10

Guiton

He was able to reverse the imprinting on the chickens in his study who tried to mate with the glove.

Went against the belief that imprinting was irreversible.

Question 11

AO3

What was the confounding variable in Harlow’s study?

Answer 11

The heads of the wire ‘mothers’ were also different.

Infants may have just preferred the head of one mother to the other.

This is a confounding variable which reduces the internal validity of the study.