Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

Who did imprinting research?

Answer 1

Konrad Lorenz 1935

Question 2

What was the aim of Lorenz’s research?

Answer 2

To investigate mother-infant attachment in Greylag Geese.

Question 3

What did Lorenz do in his research?

Answer 3

• Lab experiment
• Clutch of gosling eggs into two groups
• Control group: half left with mother in the natural environment
• Independent group: half placed in an incubator and the first moving object they saw was lorenz.
• The 2 groups were marked and placed together. Both lorenz and the mother was present.

Question 4

What did Lorenz find from his research?

Answer 4

• EG followed lorenz closely
• When putting the groups together they separated into their respective groups
• Imprinting is irreversible and long lasting
• It had an effect on mating preferences (sexual imprinting)
• Critical period in which imprinting should occur.

Question 5

What did lorenz conclude?

Answer 5

Animals imprint a mental image of the first moving object they see within hours of being born and therefore attachment must be an instinctive one.

Question 6

Advantage of Lorenz’s research: Support comes from Guiton (1966)

Answer 6

E: Legorn chicks were exposed to a yellow rubber glove that fed them during the first few weeks after hatching.
E: It was found that the glove imprinted on the chicks
L: +ve young animals are not born with a predisposition to imprint on a specific type of object but on any moving thing that is present during the critical window of development.

Question 7

Disadvantage of Lorenz’s research: findings are difficult to generalise to humans

Answer 7

E: humans and animals differ in important ways
E: Much more of human behaviour is governed by conscious decisions unlike animals such as geese and monkeys.
L: We cannot assume that animals and humans form complex emotional bonds in the same way. Therefore, more research is needed to aid our understanding.

Question 8

Who did contact comfort research?

Answer 8

Harry Harlow (1959)

Question 9

What was the aim of harlow’s research?

Answer 9

To demonstrate that attachment was not based on the feeding bond between mother and infant as predicted by the learning theory.

Question 10

What did Harlow do in his research?

Answer 10

• Lab experiment
• Rear 8 baby monkeys with two wire model mothers
• He split the monkeys into two groups

Question 11

What were the conditions in Harlow’s research?

Answer 11

1: milk was dispensed by the plains wire mother
2: no milk was dispensed by a cloth covered monkey

Question 12

How long were the monkeys studied for?

Answer 12

165 days

Question 13

What did Harlow look for in the research?

Answer 13

How long they cried for their biological mother
How much time they spent with each surrogate mother
How they responded to being frightened
How the early maternal deprivation had an effect on later life

Question 14

What did Harlow find?

Answer 14

All 8 spent most time with the cloth mother (18+ hours)
Show attachment towards the cloth mother when frightened
The monkeys were only willing to explore a room when the cloth mother was present
Only spent a short amount of time being fed
Developed abnormally into adulthood; they were more aggressive, less social, flee or freeze around other monkeys, bred less, neglected their young and even killed or attacked their young

Question 15

What did Harlow find about the critical period?

Answer 15

A mother figure had to be introduced within 90 days for an attachment to be formed.
After this time the damage is irreversible

Question 16

What did Harlow conclude?

Answer 16

Monkeys valued comfort over the ability of the mother to feed.

Question 17

Disadvantage of Harlow’s research: raised ethical issues

Answer 17

E: it created lasting emotional harm so they found it difficult to form relationships with peers. Harlow referred to this as socially abnormal
E: This could be seen as a lack of protection from harm as the monkeys were put under a great deal of lasting psychological stress that they wouldn’t have experienced in everyday life.
L: -ve goes against the ethical code of conduct

Question 18

Advantage of Harlow’s research: it had high control over variables

Answer 18

E: conducted in the controlled setting of a laboratory which allowed the extraneous variables to be controlled.
E: the time each monkey spent with the wire mother could be controlled.
L: +ve it gives high internal validity

++ criticised as Harlow used 2 different heads to the mothers. This may have given the soft mother a more appealing look to the infant monkeys, this could have confounded the results, making them invalid.

Question 19

Advantage of Harlow’s research: It has practical applications

Answer 19

E: it has given insight into attachment that has had important applications in many practical contexts
E: we now understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild.
L: it has a benefit to animal lives in the real world