Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

Lorenz’s procedure (1952)

Answer 1

-Classic experiment
- randomly divided large clutch of goose eggs
-Half hatched with mother goose in natural environment
-Other half hatched with Lorenz’s as first moving object they saw

Question 2

What was Lorenz’s research findings?

Answer 2

-Incubator group followed lorenz everywhere
-control group followed mother everywhere
-Even when mixed they followed first moving object they saw

Question 3

What is imprinting?

Answer 3

What lorenz concluded - birds attach to and follow first moving object they see

Question 4

What was the critical period for which imprinting was to occur?

Answer 4

few hours or may not happen at all

Question 5

What did Lorenz also investigate ?

Answer 5

Sexual imprinting - Relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences

Question 6

What did imprinting often lead to ?

Answer 6

Courtship behaviour

Question 7

What did Lorenz describe in a case study?

Answer 7

A peacock being reared in the reptile house of a zoo , peacock imprinted on giant turtles and showed courtship behavior towards them

Question 8

Harlow research procedure (1958)

Answer 8

Harlow removed 16 baby Rhesus monkey from their mothers and reared them with two surrogate mothers

Condition one: milk was dispensed by the plain wired mother
Condition two: milk was dispensed by the cloth covered mother

Question 9

Harlow research findings

Answer 9

-Monkeys preferred cloth covered mothe
-Monkey sought comfort from cloth mother when frightened

Question 10

What does Harlow research show?

Answer 10

Contact comfort was more important to monkeys than food

Question 11

What consequences did maternally deprived monkeys suffer as adults?

Answer 11

-less sociable
-more aggressive
-unskilled at mate
- when they did mate some killed their young

Question 12

What is the critical period for attachment formation for monkeys?

Answer 12

mother figure introduced within 90 days or attachment is impossible and damage done is irreversible

Question 13

What research is there to support concept of imprinting?

Answer 13

Revoking and Vallortigara - exposed chicks to simple shape combinations that moved such as a triangle with rectangle in front&raquo_space; when exposed to a range of combinations they followed the original one most closely

Question 14

What does the research to support imprinting suggest?

Answer 14

That young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present

Question 15

Why can’t we generalise findings from birds to humans ?

Answer 15

Attachment formation is different, mammalian attachment is a two-way process.
results and conclusions can’t necessarily be extrapolated to human population

Question 16

Why does Harlow research have real world application?

Answer 16

Howe- Harlows research has helped social workers & clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bond attachment may = risk factor in child development

Allows them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes

Question 17

What do we also understand from Harlows research?

Answer 17

Importance of attachment figures for baby monkey in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild- practical application

Question 18

Why can’t we generalize Harlows findings to humans?

Answer 18

Human brain and human behaviour is much more more complex than monkeys

Question 19

Why may Harlows research be considered unethical?

Answer 19

Primates considers human like> stands to reason effects of psychological harm endured similar to human babies