Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

What are the main two animal studies used for attachment?

Answer 1

• Lorenz’s geese (1935),

- Harlow’s monkeys (1958).

Question 2

Who carried out experiments on imprinting in geese?

Answer 2

Konrad Lorenz (1935) - an early 20th century ethologist.

Question 3

What was the aim of Konrad Lorenz’s research?

Answer 3

To investigate the mechanisms of imprinting, where the youngsters follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet.

Question 4

What made Lorenz interested in imprinting?

Answer 4

He observed the phenomenon when he was a child and a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling that then followed him around.

Question 5

What procedure was used by Lorenz?

Answer 5

• Divided a clutch of goose eggs randomly in half;
• Control group hatched naturally under mother.
• experimental group was hatched in an incubator (and the first moving thing they see is Lorenz).
• He then marked the goslings based upon their group and placed them all under an upturned box, then removed them and recorded their behaviours.

Question 6

What was the control group in Lorenz’s experiment?

Answer 6

Those goslings who were hatched naturally under the mother.

Question 7

What was the experimental group in Lorenz’s experiment?

Answer 7

Those goslings who were hatched artificially in an incubator wand the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.

Question 8

What were Lorenz’s findings?

Answer 8

The experimental group followed Lorenz everywhere whilst the control group followed the birth mother, even when the goslings where mixed they went back to their groups. Lorenz identified a critical period for imprinting.

Question 9

In what animals does imprinting occur?

Answer 9

Imprinting occurs in all mobile at birth species of birds.

Question 10

What did Lorenz observe about sexual imprinting?

Answer 10

He observed that birds who imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviours towards humans. The animals undergo sexual imprinting where they attempt to mate with animals like those they had imprinted on as a baby.

Question 11

What did Lorenz call the critical period?

Answer 11

The time in which imprinting must have occurred, he said this period was between 4 and 25 hours after birth.

Question 12

T / F

- Lorenz found that imprinting was non-permanent.

Answer 12

False - Imprinting is permanent and once the goslings are imprinted they will not change.

Question 13

What was the aim of Harlow’s research?

Answer 13

To investigate whether food or comfort was more important in forming a bond.

Question 14

Who carried out experiments on rhesus monkeys?

Answer 14

Harry Harlow (1958).

Question 15

Who’s research (Lorenz or Harlow) was more generalisable to humans?

Answer 15

Harlow - monkeys are much more similar to humans than geese and imprinting is a phenomenon that is specific to some birds.

Question 16

What procedure was used by Harlow?

Answer 16

• 16 monkeys reared with two wire-model ‘mothers’;
• One plain and one cloth-covered.
• One condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother and another condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother.

Question 17

What were Harlow’s findings?

Answer 17

• Babies cuddled the cloth-covered ‘mother’ in preference to the wire one, they also actively seek comfort from the cloth mother regardless of milk-dispensing.
• This showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance than food when it came to attachment behaviour.

Question 18

In a follow-up experiment, what did Harlow find about monkeys who were maternally deprived as adults?

Answer 18

Those reared with wire ‘mothers’ were dysfunctional as mothers themselves, they were aggressive and less sociable than control monkeys. They began to neglect their young and some even attacked and killed them.

Question 19

In a follow-up experiment, what did Harlow find about the critical development period?

Answer 19

Harlow concluded there was a critical period, a mother figure had to be introduced within 90 days for an attachment to form, after this time the damage was irreversible.

Question 20

T / F

- Harlow found that after the critical period, the damage could be mitigated through good substitute care.

Answer 20

False - Harlow found that once the damage was done, it could not be reversed.

Question 21

AO3 - Generalisation to humans.

Answer 21

Lorenz’s research was done on geese and therefore generalisation is not possible as the mammalian attachment system is different to that in birds, the phenomenon of imprinting is also specific to birds.

Question 22

AO3 - Some observations have been questioned.

Answer 22

Later researchers have questioned some of Lorenz’s conclusions, Guiton (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would attempt to mate with them as adults, but eventually learnt to prefer mating with other chickens. This suggests that imprinting is not as permanent as Lorenz said.

Question 23

AO3 - Theoretical value.

Answer 23

Harlow showed the importance of quality early attachments for later social development, developing relationships and rearing offspring.

Question 24

AO3 - Practical value.

Answer 24

The implications of a lack of ‘mother’ figures has had great practical value in a range of contexts for zoos, breeding programmes and social workers.

Question 25

AO3 - Ethical issues.

Answer 25

Harlow’s monkeys suffered greatly in the experiments, wire mother were named after a medieval torture device (iron maidens).

Question 26

AO3 - Harlow’s applications.

Answer 26

Although the monkeys are clearly much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s geese, they are still very different to humans. There is much psychological debate about the extent to which studies of non-human primates can be generalised to humans.

Question 27

Do Guiton’s findings (1966) support or oppose Lorenz’s findings?

Answer 27

Guiton (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would attempt to mate with them as adults (as Lorenz said), but eventually learnt to prefer mating with other chickens. This opposes Lorenz as it suggests sexual imprinting is not permanent.