Animal Studies Of Attachment Flashcards
What are animal studies in psychology?
Studies carried out on animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons.
Who conducted animal studies in attachment?
Lorenz and Harlow
What was the aim of Lorenz’s research?
To look at the relationship between newborn animals and their mothers.
How did Lorenz conduct his animal study?
Within a lab, randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs, with half hatching naturally (with mother) and half in an incubator.
Incubator group:
- 1st thing they saw was Lorenz or his researchers
- students made sounds to the eggs while they were still inside the egg (start of imprinting)
- spend time with hatchling once it hatched (imprinting appearence)
- raising 3 each in 4 groups as theyre never born alone
What are the findings of Lorenz’ studies?
Incubator group followed Lorenz around and control group followed their mothers
Groups mixed together, goslings clinged to who they identified as their mother
- goslings chase the student when they seem to be leaving as if thats their actual mother
What did Lorenz’ conclude from findings?
Species that are mobile from birth attach and follow the 1st moving object that they see - Imprinting
Lorenz identified a critical period whrre imprinting needs to take place
What is imprinting in the context of Lorenz’s findings?
A permanent bond/attachment formed by young to the first adults they see and the sounds they make.
recognise the adults at sight
What did Lorenz find regarding the critical period for imprinting?
Imprinting could need to take place within a few hours of birth, depending on the species.
if imprinting doesnt take place, chicks didnt attach to a mother figure
What was discovered about sexual imprinting in Lorenz’s research?
Investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult male preferences
Birds that imprinted on a human often displayed courting behavior towards humans.
What did Lorenz’ case study of a peacock show?
It was reared in a tortoise house and imprinted onto the tortoise
Directed its courtship behaviour towards tortoise’s as an adult
- peacock had undergone sexual imprinting
What was the focus of Harlow’s research?
To understand attachment through studies with rhesus monkeys.
More similar to humans than Lorenz birds
What was the procedure of Harlow’s research?
Tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother
reared 16 baby monkeys and 2 wire model mothers
- one condition, milk dispensed from a plain wire mother
- other condition, it was dispensed from a cloth covered mother
What was the findings of Harlow’s research?
Babies cuddled the cloth covered mother in preference to the plain wire mother
- sought comfort from it when they were scared
- regardless of which mother dispensed the milk
What did Harlow find regarding the importance of contact comfort?
Contact comfort was more important than food in attachment behavior.
New borns kept alone in a bare cage often died
- usually survived if someone gave them something soft to cuddle
What else did Harlow study in relation to the monkeys?
Followed the monkeys that had been deprived of a ‘real mother’ into adulthood
Aim: wanted to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect
What were the findings of Harlow’s study on maternally deprived monkeys?
Severe consequences such as aggression, lack of social skills, and neglecting or harming/killing their own offspring.
What did Harlow conclude about the critical period for attachment formation?
A mother figure must be introduced within 90 days (as stated by Lorenz) for attachment to occur; otherwise, damage is irreversible.
What is one strength of Lorenz’s animal studies?
Support for imprinting (innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object in critical period) - Regolin and Vallortigara
Chicks exposed to simple shape combinations that moved
- range of shape combinations were then moved infront of them
- followed the original most closely
What is a limitation of Lorenz’s animal studies?
Difficult to generalize findings from birds to humans due to the complexity of mammalian attachment systems.
In mammals, attachment is a 2 way process (reciprocity and interactional synchronicity)
What is one strength of Harlow’s animal studies?
Important real-world applications in assisting social workers/clinical psychologists understand the risks of lack of bonding.
means they can intervene and prevent poor outcome
- can understand the importance of attachment figures for monkeys in zoos and breeding programs
What are limitations of Harlow’s animal studies?
Difficult to generalize findings from monkeys to humans
- mammals share attachment behaviours BUT human brains/behaviours more complex than monkeys
Unethical: psychological harm of monkeys through purposely scaring them and making feel distressed
- (severe and long term distressed used in experiments and not letting them out into the wild)
