animal studies on attachment Flashcards
Lorenz aim
to test imprinting to see if animal infants bond with the first moving object they meet
Lorenz procedure
- took a large clutch of goose eggs, divided them into 2 groups
- half of eggs were placed under a goose mother, other half Lorenz kept and hatched them in an incubator, with Lorenz making sure he was the first moving object they goslings came across
lorenz findings
found that 2 groups separated to go to their respected mothers
- half to the goose half to Lorenz, when they were all mixed up in 1 group
Lorenz conclusion
birds will imprint on the first moving object they see, irrevocable and long lasting
limitation of Lorenz
- can’t generalise these findings to humans
- difficult to understand mammalian attachment system by analysing birds, e.g mammals = more emotional attachment when their young
limitation of Lorenz
- contradictory evidence for the longevity of imprinting
-guiton et al 1966 found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults, but with experience, they eventually learned to prefer other chickens, this means that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not permanent as Lorenz said
Harlow aim
investigated contant confort and whether attachment is learned or innate
harlow procdure
Harlow raised 16 baby rhesus monkeys with 2 substitute mothers
- mother 1 = was mode of wire and provided food
- mother 2 = was covered in clothe and comfortable but provided no food
- monkeys were frightened with loud noises to test for mother preference during test
harlow findings
- monkeys dont attach to mother who feeds but mother who provides conforms, contact comfort is associated with lower levels of stress and a willingness to explore
harlow conclusions
attachment concerns emotions security rather than food, therefore food is not enough for forming an attachment
harlow limitation
- extreme harm to monkeys, monkeys similar to humans, likely their suffering and experience were human like
Discuss the usefulness of animal studies for investigating attachment.
16 marker
peel 1
p - allow for experiments that would be unethical to do on humans
e - e.g Harlows study with baby monkeys involved taking them away from their real mothers, would be wrong to do with babies
e - important as it lets researchers explore how attachment works without harming humans, helps us understand Humana attachment, esp in situations where human studies aren’t possible
peel 2 strength
p- helped create important theories about human attachment
e - Lorenzs work with geese and Harlows findings on comfort helped shape bowlblys attachment theory, which is a key concept of understanding human relationships
e- shows that what we learn from animals can be used to explain how humans form attachments, esp the idea that early experiences re crucial
l- therefore, animal studies have been essential in developing important theories about humans form and maintain attachments
limitation 1
p - findings may not full apply to humans
e - e.g Lorenz geese attached to the first moving thing they saw, but human attachment is more complex and influenced by many factors, which have been spoken about through Schaffer and Emerson 1964
e- shows that humans and animals are different , and what works for animals may not fully explain human attachment , because its more complex
l- so while animal studies are helpful, need to be careful when applying their findings to humans because the processes might not be the same
limiation 2
p- ethical issues which can effect how the findings are viewed
e - Harlows experiments caused distress to monkeys, raising questions about whether it was right to cause harm for the sake of the research
e - important as if research is seen as unethical = people may question results, could limit ability to do such study in future
l- so while animal studies have taught us a lot about attachment, ethical issues are major libation, need to find more human ways to do this study
