animal studies of attachment Flashcards
animal studies definition
in psychology these are studies carried out on a non-human animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons - practical because animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals
who did research on animal attachment
-Lorenz
-Harlow
ethologist research on animal studies in early 20th study
conducted animal studies of the relationship between new born animals and their mothers. their observation informed psychologists’ understanding of care-giver infant attachment in humans. one of the most ethologists was Lorenz
when did Lorez do research
1952
what did lorez do his study on
imprinting
when did lorenz first observe the phenomenon of imprinting
when he was a child and a neighbour gave a newly hatched duckling that followed him around
what was Lorez procedure
randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs. half of the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment. the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
what was Lorenz findings -observations
-the incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere but the control who hatched in presence of the mother followed her. even when the 2 groups were mixed the control group continued to follow the mother and experimental group followed Lorenz
lorenz findings
imprinting where a bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place. depending on the species this can be as brief as a few hours after birth or hatching. if imprinting does not occur within that time lorenz found the chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure
what study on sexual imprinting did Lorenz do
relationship between imprinting and adult mate preference, he observed that birds could be imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans
Lorenz 1952 sexual imprinting case study
described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoise’s. as an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises. Lorenz concluded this meant the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting
what animal did Harlow work with
rhesus monkeys
why is Harlow’s study potentially better than Lorenz
because the monkeys are more similar to humans than lorenz’s birds
what did Harlow observe
newborns kept in a bare cage alone often died but they usually survived if given something soft like a cloth to cuddle
when did Harlow do research
1958
what is Harlow procedure
tested the idea that soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. in one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model mothers. in one condition milk was dispensed by the plain-wire mother whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother
Harlow findings
the baby monkeys cuddles the cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain-wire mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened such as by a noisy mechanical teddy bear regardless of if the cloth-covered mother or plain-wire mother was dispensing milk. this showed that contact comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behvaiour
what effect did maternal deprivation have
severe consequences
how did Harlow see if deprivation had effects
followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a real mother into adulthood to see if this maternal deprivation had a permeant effect. researchers found severe consequences
maternally deprived monkeys as adults
the monkeys reared with the plain-wire mother only were the most dysfunctional. However, even those with reared with cloth -covered mother did not develop normal social behvaiour. these deprived monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable than the other monkeys and they bred less often than is typical for monkeys, being unskilled for mating. when they become mothers, some the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, even killing them in some cases
harlow research - critical period for normal development
like lorenz harlow concluded that there was a critical period for attachment formation - a mother figure had to be introduced to a young monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. after this time attachment was impossible and damage done by early deprivation became irreversible
critical period for monkeys
90 days
strength of Lorenz’s research - research support
-there is existence of support for the concept of imprinting
-Regolin and valloritigara 1955 supports Lorenz idea of imprinting. chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved, such as a triangle with a rectangle in front. a range of shape combinations were then moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely –> supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint in a moving object in the critical period as predicted by Lorenz
limitation of Lorenz’s research - generalisability to humans
-lack of ability to be able to generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans
-mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than birds. for example, in mammals attachment is a 2 way processes, so it is not just the young who become attached to their mothers but also the mammalian mothers show an emotional attachment to their young –> probably not appropriate to generalise lorenz to humans
evaluation of Lorenz’s research- applications to understanding human behaviour
-although human attachment is very different from that in birds there have been attempts to use the idea that some kind of imprinting explains human behaviour. for example Seebach 2005 suggested that computer users exhibit ‘baby duck syndrome’ - which is the attachment formed to their first computer operating system, leading them to reject others
strength of Harlow’s research - real-world value
-important real-world applications
-for example, it ahs helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes (Howe 1998). we also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild –> means that the value of harlow’s research is not just theoretical but also practical
limitation of Harlow’s research - generalisability to humans
-lack of ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans
-Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than lorenz’s birds and all mammals share some common attachment behaviours. however, the human brain and human behvaiour is still more complex than that of monkeys –> means that it may not be appropriate to generalise harlow’s findings to humans
evaluation of Harlow’s research - ethical issues
harlow’s research caused severe and long-term distress to the monkeys. however, his findings and conclusions have important theoretical and practical applications
