Animal Studies Of Attachment. Flashcards
What year did Harlow conduct his research?
1958
What was Harlow’s procedure?
16 baby rhesus monkeys were taken from their mothers and kept in a cage with two substitute mothers: a ‘cloth mother’ covered in a soft blanket and a ‘wire mother’ incorporating a feeding bottle. The monkeys were kept in these conditions for a period of time and then released into a cage with a group of normally reared monkeys.
What results did Harlow find?
The babies cuddle and sought comfort from the cloth mother (they spent 17 to 18 hours with this mother even though the wire mother supplied them with milk - they only spend one hour with this mother). When they returned to the company of other monkeys, Harlow’s monkeys showed signs of dysfunctional behaviour. They were aggressive towards other monkeys, less sociable/unable to form relationships and bred less often. If they did have offspring , some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young whilst others attacked them and, in extreme cases, killed them.
What were Harlow’s conclusions?
-Baby monkeys do not attach primarily for food, they attach for comfort (feelings of security). This is inconsistent with learning theory which sees attachment to the mother simply as a consequence of the need for food.
-There is a critical period of 90 days for an attachment form. If an attachment does not form in this time then it cannot form and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.
Evaluation point one:
(+) Value to psychology
Improved our understanding of mother-infant attachment and showed us the importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development. For example, when an attachment does not form during the critical period it will lead to dysfunctional behaviour: monkeys were aggressive, less sociable, less likely to for relationship relationships and likely to be worse parents.
Evaluation point 2:
(+) Practical application to humans and monkeys
Humans: due to understanding of importance of early attachment, share parental leave has been introduced and education of parents and provide support through their quality of attachment made
Monkeys: shows the importance of early relationships so we can inform breeding programs (ensure monkey stay with mothers for 90 days after birth etc.)
Evaluation point 3:
(-) Ethical issues
Holly’s research could be seen as unethical as it lacks protection of harm of monkeys. (+) however, the harm cause may be outweigh by the positive information gained about early (cost benefit analysis)
Evaluation point 4:
(-) Generalisability
Humans are not the same as monkeys so we cannot be sure if deprivation of early attachment has the same impact on humans so cannot use this evidence to support the importance of earlier attachment in humans.
What year did Lorenz complete his study into animal attachment?
1935
What was Lorenz’s procedure?
Randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. In the control group, half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose and their natural environment. In the experimental group, the other half hatch in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
What results did Lorenz find?
The experimental group followed Lorenz everywhere where is the control group followed the mother Goose. When the two groups were mixed up, the control group continue to follow their mother and the experimental group continue to follow Lorenz.
What conclusions did Lorenz make?
- Imprinting occurs whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attached to and follow the first moving object they see to keep them safe from harm.
- Imprinting needs to take place within a critical period. (Which can be as brief as a few hours after hatching in certain species.) if imprinting does not occur within the critical period then checks would not attach at all.
What is sexual imprinting?
Lorenz found that birds would later display courtship behaviour towards whatever species they had imprinted onto. E.g. a peacock reared in the reptile house of the zoo who imprinted onto a giant tortoise, would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises in full adulthood. He concluded that this meant he had undergone sexual imprinting.
Evaluation point 1:
(-) Human beings are not the same as birds
Human beings are not the same as birds so there is a problem with generalising Lorenz’s findings as we don’t know whether this tells us anything about attachment in humans. Therefore, his findings are less useful.
Evaluation point 2:
(-) Problems with reliability
Problems with reliability as some of Lorenz’s observations had been questioned e.g. Guiton (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to meet with them as adults (as Lorenz predicted), but that with experience, they eventually learned to prefer meeting with other chickens. This suggests the impact of imprinting is not permanent in chickens. No permanent effect on meeting and the effect is temporary and can be overridden by an environmental experience.
Overall evaluation of animal studies of attachment:
Point 1:
(+) behavioural continuity across species
Darwin assumes that basic patterns of behaviour are the same in all species. We are likely to see similar behaviours in humans so we can generalise a finance to attachment in humans e.g. the critical period.
Point 2:
(+) rapid maturation and quick development cycles and animals
This means it is possible to study several generations. This is an advantage as we can see the impact of early attachment on adult behaviour across generations.
Point 3:
(+) animals can be reared in control environments
Animals can be reared in controlled environments. This is an advantage as we can control key extraneous variables so we can be more certain that it is the changes to ear attachment which is affecting later adult behaviour. This increases the internal validity of the findings.
Point4:
(+) Lorenz and Harlow’s ideas have influenced the way infants are raised
For example, skin to skin as soon as possible with mother and father occurs in hospitals, babies are kept with the mother/father if possible and the mother/father to care for baby ASAP etc
Point 5:
(-) recent work has suggested that the view of a critical period is oversimplistic
The idea of a critical period has been replaced with the ‘sensitive period’. They suggest that although there are times when infants are more receptive to opportunities for learning or bonding, these opportunities are not ‘All or nothing’ . An increasing body of evidence suggest that children who failed for attachments in the first few years can recover socially animation if they receive adequate care when they are older.
