Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow. Flashcards
What are animal studies
2 reasons and one goes in depth
-Studies carried out on animal species either for ethical or practical reasons
-Practical because animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals
What is imprinting
Imprinting is a form of attachment whereby close contact is kept with the first large moving object encountered
Procedure of Lorenz animal study (6)
-Divided Goose eggs randomly;half were taken to be hatched by him using an incubator and the other half naturally hatched by the biological mother
-Lorenz marked the goslings so that he knew whether they had hatched naturally or whether they had hatched in the incubator
-He placed all the goslinsg under an upturned box
-The box was then removed
-The goslings who Lorenz had hatched imprinted on him, following him rather than the mother goose.
-The goslings hatched in a natural environment imprinted on the mother goose and followed her
Lorenz findings on the goslings (5)
-After birth, the naturally hatched baby goslings followed their mother whilst the incubator hatched goslings followed Lorenz
-Shows no bond to their natural mother
-These bonds proved to be irreversible
-Lorenz noticed how the process of imprinting occurred only for a short period of time after birth 4-25 hrs
-He also found a critical period of around 32 hours; if a gosling did not see a large moving object to imprint on in these first few hours they lost the ability to imprint
What is sexual imprinting and give an example
*A similar idea to imprinting but the animals will attach and display sexual behaviours towards the first moving objects or animal they see directly after birth.
*Lorenz reported a case of a peacock who was born surrounded by turtles, and so only desired to mate with turtles in later life
Strength of Lorenz-Helped Bowlby (4)
Attachment formation
-A strength of Lorenz’s study is that its findings have been highly influential within the field of developmental psychology.
-For example, the fact that imprinting is seen to be irreversible suggests that attachment formation is under biological control and that attachment formation happens within a specific time frame.
-This is a strength because it lead Bowlby to develop well recognised theories of attachment suggesting the attachment formation takes place during a critical period and is a biological process.
-Such theories have been highly influential in the way child care is administered today
Limitation of Lorenz-Generalisability to humans- (4)
Limitation to both Harlow and Lorenz
- The generalisation of animal behaviour to human psychology is problematic.
- Humans and animals have very different biology, and humans have various social and cultural; experiences that inform their behaviour.
- Even Harlow’s findings on primates who are closer genetically to humans than lorenz’s birds, should not automatically be thought to apply to humans
- This means that it is not appropriate to try to generalise any of Lorenzes ideas to humans
Limitation to Lorenz- Other resercher (4)
Guit
-Later researchers have questioned some of Lorenz’s conclusions.
-For example the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour.
-Guiton et al (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults but that with experience they eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens.
-This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not permanent as Lorenz believed.
What was the procedure of Harlows experiment on monkeys(3)
Harlows research supports the learning theory of attachment
-Harlow (1958) Removed infant monkeys from their biological mothers and placed them in cages with surrogate mothers.
-One surrogate mother provided milk but not comfort, as its body was constructed of exposed wires; the other surrogate mother provided comfort as the wire was covered with a cloth;the cloth mother did not provide food.
-Time spent with the mother was recorded, as well as which surrogate the infant ran to when frightened by a mechanical monkey.
Findings of Harlows experiments(3)
-The infant monkeys spent most of their time with the comfort providing cloth mother, only visiting the food mother when they need to eat but quickly returning to the cloth mother for comfort.
-The infant monkeys returned to the cloth mother when frightened. And monkeys without access to a cloth mother showed signs of stress related illness
-In follow up studies, Harlow found that the maternal deprivation his studies had caused permanent social disorders in the monkeys as adults, including difficult in mating behaviour and raising their offspring.
What were the severe consequences found by Harlow when he looked into the monkeys who had been deprived of a real mother
-The monkeys reared with wire mothers only were the most dysfunctiional group;However,even those reared with a soft toy as a substitute did not develop normal social behaviours
-They were more aggressive and less sociable and bred less often
What was the critical period for monkeys
90 days for monkeys–>if after this time attachment was impossible the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible
Limitation to Harlow-Ethical issues(5)
-Harlow faces severe criticism for the ethics of his research. -The monkeys suffered greatly as a result of Harlows procedures.
-This species is considered similar enough to humans to be able to generalise findings which also means their sufferings was presumably quite human-like.
-Harlow himself was well aware of the suffering he caused-Harlow referred to the wire mother as iron maidens after a medieval torture device.
-This counter arguement is that harlows research was sufficiently important to justify the effects
Strength of Harlow-Practical application (4)
-The insight into attachment has had important applications in a range of practical contexts.
-For example it has helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and so intervene to prevent.
-Of course these findings are also important in the care of captive monkeys.
-We now understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and also in breast feeding programs in the wild
Sterngth for Harlow-Theoretical value (3)
disapproves cupboard love theory
-One strength of Harlow’s findings is that it hasvhad a profound effect on psychologists understanding of human mother-infant attachment and so disapproves the cupboard love theory.
-Harlow showed that attachment does not develop as the result of being fed by a mother figure but as a result of contact comfort.
-Harlow also showed us the importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development including the ability to hold down adult relationships and successfully rear children.
What was Harlow trying to test for (4)
The cupboard love theroy which he later rejected through his findings
-Babies love their mother because they feed them
-His research rejects the cupboard love theory as the monkeys were not attached to the food mother
-He argued animals have an innate need for physical contact
