animal studies of attachment

Question 1

who researched into animal studies of attachment?

Answer 1

• Harlow’s monkeys
• Lorenz’s geese

Question 2

what is imprinting?

Answer 2

an innate form of attachment, where animals will attach to the first moving object or person they see directly after birth

Question 3

outline Lorenz’s procedure

Answer 3

• divided a clutch of 12 gosling eggs into 2 groups
• c1: eggs hatched by mother
• c2: eggs hatched by incubator, first thing they saw was Lorenz
• Lorenz marked the goslings so he could tell which ones were in which group
• combined the goslings and exposed them to both Lorenz and mother
• behaviour recorded

Question 4

outline Lorenz’s findings

Answer 4

• goslings divided themselves up, one group following Lorenz, and the other following mother
• Lorenz’s group showed no recognition of their natural mother

Question 5

what were the conclusions of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 5

• imprinting has a critical period during when it can occur, which is usually the first 30 months of life, after which an attachment is not possible
• found that imprinting is irreversible, and the animal cannot imprint onto anything else
• early imprinting is linked to later reproductive behaviour

Question 6

what other type of imprinting did Lorenz find?

Answer 6

sexual imprinting

Question 7

what is sexual imprinting?

Answer 7

where animals will attach to and display sexual behaviours towards the first moving object or animal they see directly after birth

Question 8

evaluation Lorenz: research support (Guiton)

Answer 8

ID: research to support imprinting
Q: this evidence comes from Guiton, who researched imprinting in chicks and found similar findings
EX: for example, Guiton demonstrated that leghorn chicks that were exposed to a yellow glove that fed them, became imprinted on the gloves within the first few weeks of life. he also found that male leghorn chicks tried to mate with the yellow glove later in life.
AN: this supports the idea that young animals are not predisposed to imprint on a specific type of object, but rather on any moving object they’re exposed to during the critical period. furthermore, it supports that imprinting can affect adult reproductive behaviour

Question 9

evaluation Lorenz: generalisability to humans

Answer 9

ID: an issue with research on animals, is that it lacks generalisability to humans
Q: this means that there are significant issues associated with trying to apply the findings from Lorenz’s geese studies
EX: for example, Lorenz’s findings on birds aren’t necessarily applicable to humans as mammalian attachment systems are different to that of birds, because mammals can potentially form attachments at any time during their lives and at a greater emotional intensity.
AN: therefore, this suggests that such findings have low ecological validity
because they cannot be generalised beyond the research setting within which they were found.

Question 10

what was the aim of Harlow’s research?

Answer 10

to investigate whether food or comfort was more important for attachment in monkeys

Question 11

outline Harlow’s procedure

Answer 11

• 16 rhesus monkeys, split into 2 conditions
• studied for 165 days
  1 wire mother, 1 cloth mother
• c1: wire mother dispensed milk
• c2: cloth mother dispensed milk

Question 12

outline Harlow’s findings

Answer 12

• found that monkeys cuddled with the cloth-covered mother regardless of who dispensed the milk, also known as contact comfort
• spent 17-18 hrs a day with cloth mother, less than 1hr with wire mother
• when the monkeys were frightened by a noisy object, they ran to cloth mother, even if it didn’t have milk

Question 13

what were the conclusions of Harlow’s findings?

Answer 13

• attachment is more concerned with warmth and emotional security than food
• infants do not develop attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering contact comfort.

Question 14

what were the long term effects on the monkeys?

Answer 14

• the motherless monkeys were socially abnormal and neglected their young as adults
• Harlow also found that there were critical periods for these effects.
• if the motherless monkeys spent time with their monkey peers they seemed to recover only if it was before they were 3 months old
• abnormal mating behaviour

Question 15

evaluation Harlow: ethical issues

Answer 15

ID: Harlow’s research can be criticised for having ethical issues
Q: this means that there were long-lasting emotional effects as the monkeys suffered psychological harm
EX: for example, long-term
psychological harm was inflicted upon the monkeys, in the form of later difficulties mating and
forming secure attachments. the motherless monkeys were socially abnormal and neglected their young as adults
AN: in such cases, a cost-benefit
analysis should be conducted to assess whether the ethical costs are smaller or larger than the benefits of an improved understanding of attachment.

Question 16

evaluation Harlow: confounding variables

Answer 16

ID: a further criticism of Harlow’s research is that it may lack internal validity
Q: this is due to the impact of confounding variables on the findings
EX: for example, the two stimulus objects (monkeys) varied in more ways than the soft cloth. the two heads were also different, which may have meant the monkeys may have preferred the better-looking monkey and seeked comfort from it due to this.
AN: therefore, the study may lack internal validity as it cannot provide full conclusions on whether attachment is based on comfort or food, due to confounding variables used