Animal Studies Of Attachment

Question 1

Lorenz’s research - imprinting

Answer 1

Procedure:
- experiment, randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs.
- half 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

Findings:
- incubator group followed Lorenz, the control group followed mother goose.
- when groups were mixed up, control group followed mother goose and experimental followed Lorenz

Called imprinting - bird species that are mobile from birth, follow first moving thing they see
- Lorenz identified a critical period - where imprinting must take place, brief as a few hrs after birth, if it didn’t happen in time then they wouldn’t attach at all

Question 2

Sexual imprinting

Answer 2

• Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate presences
• observed birds that imprinted on humans, later displayed courtship beh to humans
• case study Lorenz; peacock was reared in reptile house, first moving thing it saw was a tortoise + showed courtship beh to the tortoise (sexual imprinting)

Question 3

Harlow’s research - procedure and findings

Answer 3

Procedure:
- tested the idea that soft objects serves some of the functions of a mother
- reared 16 monkeys with two wire mothers,
- in 1 condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother, another milk dispensed by cloth mother

Findings:
- monkeys cuddled the cloth mother + sought comfort from cloth mother when frightened (noisy mechanical bear) regardless of which mother dispensed milk
- showed ‘contact comfort’ was more important than food when it came to A beh

Question 4

Harlows research - maternally deprived monkeys as adults

Answer 4

• monkeys reared with a wire-mother were the most dysfunctional
• those reared with cloth-mother did not develop normal social beh
• the deprived monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys, they bred less often than is typical for monkeys, unskilled mating.
• when they became mothers, neglected their young, attacked and some killed their young

Question 5

Critical period for normal development

Answer 5

• Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for attachment formation
• a mother figure has to be introduced to a young monkey within 90 days for an A to form
• after this time, an A was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible

Question 6

Evaluate Lorenz’s research on animal studies

Answer 6

STRENGTH:
Existing support for the concept of imprinting; chicks were exposed to the simple shape combinations that moved
- range of shape combinations then moved in front of them and they followed the original closely
- supports the view that young animal are born with innate mechanism to imprint on moving objects present in the critical window of development

LIMITATION:
Ability to generalise findings from birds to humans; the mammalian A is more complex than birds
- in mammals its a 2 way, from mother-child + child-mother
- not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s idea to humans

Question 7

Evaluate Harlow’s research on animal studies

Answer 7

STRENGTH:
Real world applications; helped social workers + clinical psychologists understand a lack of bonding experience can be a risk factor in child dev - so they can prevent poor outcomes
- understand the importance of A figures for baby monkeys - breeding programs

LIMITATION:
Ability to generalise findings from monkeys to humans
- Rhesus monkeys more similar to humans than birds, all mammals share common A beh
- however the human brain + beh is still more complex than monkeys
Not appropriate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans