animal studies on attachment

Question 1

what are the two main studies in animal studies of attachment?

Answer 1

Lorenz (1952)

Harlow (1958)

Question 2

explain Lorenz’s research on imprinting

procedure

Answer 2

procedure

• classical experiment where he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs- half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz and other half were hatched with their mother goose in their natural environment

Question 3

what were the findings from Lorenz’s experiment

Answer 3

• incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere
• control group followed mother
• when the groups were mixed up the experimental group still followed Lorenz

Known as imprinting- attach to first moving object they see. Can be as brief as a few hours after birth

Lorenz found that if imprinting did not occur then chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure

Question 4

who researched sexual imprinting

Answer 4

Lorenz (1952)

Question 5

explain the research on sexual imprinting

Answer 5

• Lorenz observed birds that imprinted on a human would often display later courtship behaviour towards a human.

Case study
- he described a peacock that had been reared in a reptile house of a zoo where the first moving object it saw after hatching were giant tortoises.
- as an adult the bird only displayed courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises.

Lorenz concluded that this meant the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.

Question 6

evaluate Lorenz’s research into animal studies of attachment

Answer 6

research support (strength)
- study by Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) supports this
- Chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved when they hatched
- a range of shape combinations were then moved in front of them and they followed the original one most closely
- therefore supports Lorenz’s research.

Generalisability to humans (limitation)
- human attachment is different from birds
- humans is a two-way process so u cant generalise to humans.

Question 7

evaluate Harlow’s research

Answer 7

real world value (strength)
- has real world applications
- helped social workers understand that a lack of bonding may be a risk factor in child development so they can intervene and prevent poor outcomes (Howe 1998).

Generalisability to humans (limitation)
- inability to generalise from monkeys to humans
- human behaviour and brain is much more complex than that of moneys

Question 8

what were the pain points of Harlow’s research

Answer 8

importance of contact comfort

maternally deprived monkeys as adults

critical period for normal development

Question 9

explain the procedure of Harlow’s research into contact comfort.

Answer 9

Harlow (1958) tested idea that a soft object can act as a mother
- He reared 16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model mothers.
- in one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in the second condition milk was dispensed by the cloth wire mother.

Question 10

explain the findings of Harlow’s research

Answer 10

• the baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain-wired mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened. (by noisy teddy bear) regardless of which mother dispensed milk.
• showed that contact comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food.