Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

What was the procedure of Lorenz’s study on imprinting?

Answer 1

• he randomly divided goose eggs into 2 groups
• half the eggs were hatched with their mother goose in their natural environment
• the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz

Question 2

What were the findings of Lorenz’s study on imprinting?

Answer 2

• the incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whilst the control group followed their mother even when both groups were mixed
• this study shows imprinting where bird species that are mobile from birth (geese & duck) follow the first moving object they see
• if imprinting didn’t occur the first few hours after hatching Lorenz found that the chicks didn’t attach themselves to a mother figure

Question 3

What did Lorenz discover about sexual printing?

Answer 3

• birds that had been imprinted on a human would often display courtship to humans
• e.g. a peacock reared in a reptile house in a zoo saw giant tortoises as its first moving object
• as an adult the peacock would direct courtship only to giant tortoises
• Lorenz concluded the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting

Question 4

What was the procedure of Harlow’s study on the importance of contact comfort?

Answer 4

• he observed that new-born left alone in a bare cage usually died but those who were given a blanket or something soft for comfort usually survived
• he tested that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother
• he reared 16 monkeys who were in a cage with 2 ‘mother’s made of wire
• one ‘mother’ has a milk dispenser & the other had a cloth covering the wire

Question 5

What were the findings of Harlow’s study on the importance of contact comfort?

Answer 5

• monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth-covered ‘mother’ and would cling on to it when they were scared
• Harrow et al. followed these monkeys who were deprived of a ‘real’ mother into adulthood to see if this deprivation has a permanent effect
• the monkeys reared with a wire ‘mother’ were the most dysfunctional
• those who had grown up with the cloth-covered ‘mother’ also lacked normal social behaviour
• they were less sociable and more aggressive and were unskilled at mating than other monkeys
• mothers of the deprived monkeys were found rejecting their young and some even attacked or killed them

Question 6

What did Harlow conclude from his study?

Answer 6

• a mother figure had to be introduced to the infant monkeys within 90 days to form an attachment
• after 90 days forming an attachment was impossible & damage done by early deprivation was irreversible

Question 7

Evaluation (of Lorenz’s study): Generalisability to humans

Answer 7

• Lorenz focused on imprinting in birds
• his research has helped understanding of human development but there is an issue on generalising his findings from birds to humans
• mammalian attachment system is different to birds - e.g. mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their offspring than birds & can form attachments at any time unlike birds who do at infancy
• this means Lorenz’s ideas can’t be generalised to understand human attachment

Question 8

Evaluation (of Lorenz’s study): Some of Lorenz’s observations have been questioned

Answer 8

• researchers have questioned some of Lorenz’s conclusions
• e.g. the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour
• Guiton et al. found that chickens imprinted on yellow gloves would try to mate with them (as Lorenz predicted) but eventually learned to prefer mating other chickens
• this means the impact on imprinting on mating behaviour is not permanent like Lorenz predicted - his conclusions can be seen as partially invalid

Question 9

Evaluation (of Harlow’s study): Practical value

Answer 9

• Harlow’s research has been very useful in practical contexts
• e.g. it has helped social workers understand the risk factors of child neglect & abuse so are able to intervene and try resolve it
• these findings have also help understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos

Question 10

Evaluation (of Harrow’s study): Ethical issues

Answer 10

• Harlow received criticism of ethics for his research
• the monkeys suffered a lot psychologically during the procedures
• the monkey species was considered the most human-like (allowing findings to be generalised) but also which means suffering was also human-like
• this is a limitation because Harlow was aware of the suffering caused by his research
• counter argument would be that Harlow’s research was important enough to justify the effects