Animal Studies of Attachment Flashcards
What was the aim of Lorenz’ study?
To investigate the mechanisms of imprinting, where the youngsters follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet.
Outline the procedure of Lorenz’s study.
He set up a classic experiment where he randomly divided a 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. He then marked the goslings so he could tell which ones were born in the natural environment or not. He would place the goslings in an upturned box and then remove the box and record their behaviour.
What were the findings of Lorenz’s study?
The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere but the control group followed their mother, even when the two groups were mixed. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place. This period changes depending on the species but Lorenz found that imprinting doesn’t occur in that time then the chicks didn’t attach themselves to a mother figure.
Define imprinting.
when bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see
What did Lorenz find about sexual imprinting and how did he study this?
He observed that birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans.
In a case study Lorenz described a peacock that had been reared in a reptile house where the first moving objects it saw were giant tortoises. As an adult this peacock would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises so Lorenz concluded that this meant the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting
Outline the strengths of Lorenz’s study.
- There is research support for the concept of imprinting. Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) did a study with chicks that supported Lorenz’s idea of imprinting. The birds were exposed to simple shapes that moved and then a range of moving shapes were placed in front of them and they followed the original most closely. This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development.
Outline the weaknesses of Lorenz’s study.
The data isn’t very generalisable to the human race because the mammalian attachment system is very different and more complex than that of birds. This means it’s probably not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas to humans.
Outline the aim of Harlow’s study.
To investigate whether food or comfort was more important in forming a bond.
Outline the procedure of Harlow’s study.
He reared 16 baby rhesus monkeys with two wire model mothers. In one conditin the milk was dispensed from the plain wire mother whereas in the 2nd condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother
What were the findings of Harlow’s study?
The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the wire mother and sought comfort from the cloth mother when frightened no matter which mother dispensed milk. This showed that contact comfort was of more importance to monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
What did Harlow find in his follow-up?
Harlow found that the deprivation of a real mother had had severe effects on the monkeys and that the wire mother monkeys were the most dysfunctional. Even the cloth-reared monkeys didn’t develop normal social behaviour. These monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys and they bred less often than other monkey. When they became mothers themselves, some of the monkeys neglected and even attacked their children.
What was Harlow’s conclusion?
That there was a critical period for forming an attachment , a mother figure had to be introduced to a young monkey within 90 days or else attachment was impossible and the damage was irreversible
Outline the strengths of Harlow’s research.
It has important real-world applications. It has 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. We also now understand the importance of mothers for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild. This means the value of Harlow’s research is practical not just theoretical.
Outline the limitations of Harlow’s research.
We can’t generalise the findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans. Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds and all animals share attachment behaviours however the human brain and behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys. This means it might not be appropriate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans
