Animal Studies Of Attachment Content Flashcards
Why do psychologists look at animal studies?
. Slightly more ethical than human studies
. Their behaviour can be similar to humans
Who came up with imprinting theory?
Konrad Lorenz
Give a short summary about Konrad Lorenz
. Old white male from 1960s
. Spent a lot of his life with geese
. Influential ethologist
. Looked at animal behaviour, specially imprinting, when he was a child
. Neighbour gave him a duckling who followed him around
What is imprinting?
An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the first moving object which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/hatching (critical period)
How was imprinting seen in Lorenz’s study?
When young goslings are born, they follow the first large, moving object they see innately and attach to them
What was the procedure of Lorenz (1935)?
Took a clutch of gosling eggs and divided them into two groups
Group 1: left with natural mother (control group)
Group 2: left in incubator (experimental group)
When the incubator eggs hatched, the first thing the Gosling’s saw was Lorenz
When the natural eggs hatched, the first thing they saw was their natural mother
What are the findings of Lorenz (1935)?
. Once the goslings hatched, they followed the first moving object they saw during the critical period (12-17 hours)
. Lorenz’s geese (incubated ones) showed no recognition of their natural mother
. Lorenz found that imprinting to humans doesn’t work for some animals e.g curlews won’t imprint on a human
What is the critical period in Lorenz’s study and what is significant about it?
12-17 hours: imprinting will not occur if the animal isn’t exposed to a moving object in this critical period
What conclusions can be drawn from Lorenz’s study?
. Attachment is innate and genetic: supports view that having a biological basis for attachment is adaptive
. Highlighted the idea of a critical period
. Imprinting is an innate process
How did Lorenz test the effects of imprinting immediately after his study?
Marked the two different groups and put them together, with both Lorenz and the natural mother present. The incubator group continued to imprint on Lorenz only
What were the long-lasting effects of Lorenz’s study?
. Early imprinting had an effect later on for mate preferences = sexual imprinting
. Several features of imprinting were noted by Lorenz in 1952
What are the features of imprinting (Lorenz 1952)?
. Occurs without any feeding taking place
. Irreversible
. If no attachment has developed within 32 hours, it’s unlikely any attachment will develop
. Imprinting has consequences for methods of short-term survival
. Imprinting helps to develop internal templates for later relationships
What is sexual imprinting?
When a young animal learns and bases the characteristics of a mate off of observations from an early age. Animal will choose to mate with the same kind of object they were imprinted on.
What did Harlow call his research report?
‘The origins of love’
What is the theory of cupboard love?
When the infant attaches to the caregiver who provides the food
What was the aim of Harlow’s monkeys (1959)?
To show that attachment isn’t based on the feeding bond between mother and infant as suggested by learning theories of attachment
What was the procedure of Harlow’s monkeys?
8 rhesus monkeys studied for 165 days
There were two surrogate (fake) wire mothers:
1. Cloth mother
2. Wire mother
4 monkeys had a feeding tube on the ‘cloth mother’
4 monkeys had a feeding tube on the ‘wire mother’
What was measured in Harlow’s monkeys?
. Time monkey spent with each ‘mother’
. Observations of responses when frightened by a mechanical teddy bear
What were the findings of Harlow’s monkeys experiment?
. All monkeys spent most time with the cloth mother, no matter who had the feeding tube
. Those feeding on the wire mother only went to it in desperate need for food before jumping back to the cloth mother
. When frightened, all monkeys clung to the cloth mother
. When playing with new objects, kept a foot on the cloth mother for safety (proximity for secure base)
What main conclusion can be drawn from Harlow’s monkeys experiment?
Attachment isn’t based on the feeding bond but best contact comfort
How did Harlow investigate the long-lasting effects of his experiment?
Continued to study the monkeys as they grew up
What were the long-lasting effects on the rhesus monkeys?
. Motherless monkeys, even with contact comforts developed abnormally:
- socially abnormal: froze/fled around other monkeys
- sexually abnormal: no normal mating behaviour and didn’t cradle own babies
. Harlow found a critical period for these effects:
. If motherless monkeys spent time with monkey ‘peers’ before 3 months, they could recover and develop normal attachments
- after 6 months with the wire mother, monkeys couldn’t recover
What did a Lorenz case study in 1952 to support sexual imprinting say?
A peacock was brought up in a reptile house of a zoo, the first moving thing it saw after hatching was a giant tortoise
- as an adult, the peacock would only display courtship behaviour (mating behaviour) towards giant tortoises
