Animal studies on attachments Flashcards
What are the two key animal studies?
Lorenz and Harlow
What do animal studies on attachment look at?
The formation of early bonds between non human parents and their offspring. Itâs import at as the behaviour is common to a range in species and can help understand human attachments
Imprinting
the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period
What is a critical period?
- Bowlby suggested that there is a critical period at around 2 years when the infant attachment system is active.
- He viewed this more as a sensitive period, if attachment has not formed by now the child will struggle to form future attachments
What was Lorenzâs aim?
to investigate mechanisms of imprinting
What was Lorenzâs procedure?
he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs, where half the eggs were hatched with the mother (natural environment) and half in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz. Their behaviour was observed
What were Lorenzâs findings?
- Immediately after birth incubated goslings followed lorenz and the naturally hatched goslings followed the mother.
- They did the same after the upturned box was removed. The incubated goslings showed no bond with their mother
- Goslings imprinted on humans would later try to mate with humans.
When did Lorenz find imprinting occurred?
Lorenz noted that imprinting occurred between 4 and 25 hours after hatching
Sexual imprinting
Birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans -> Lorenz (1952)
Lorenz evaluation
- Research support, Guiton (1966), Lorenz (1952) peacock and tortoise
- Dispute over characteristics of imprinting, Hoffman (1996) and Guiton (1966)
- Problem of generalising from birds to humans as itâs different
Guiton (1966)
Leghorn chicks fed with yellow rubber gloves imprinted on the gloves, and males which had done so later tried to mate with the gloves. However this imprinting could be reversed and normal sexual behaviour learned.
Hoffman (1996)
Imprinting is a more âplastic and forgiving mechanismâ
How did Harlow use rhesus monkeys?
Harlow used rhesus monkeys to see if attachments are formed through food as like the Learning Theory.
Harlowâs 1959 Rhesus Study
New born monkeys were separated from their mothers and raised in cages. In each cage was a âbaby blanketâ and the infant monkeys became distressed whenever the blanket was removed, a similar reaction to when baby monkeys are separated from their mothers. This suggested that attachment was not based on association with food.
What was the aim of Harlows (1959) study?
To test learning theory by comparing attachment behaviour in baby monkeys given a wire surrogate mother producing milk with those given a soft towelling mother with no milk
What was the procedure of Harlows (1959) study?
The amount of time and feeding time spent with each mother was recorded. The monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to test for mother preference during stress. A larger cage was also used to test the monkeysâ degree of exploration.
What surrogate mothers were used in Harlowâs (1959) study?
Two types of surrogate mother was constructed - a harsh âwire motherâ and a soft towelling motherâ.
How many baby monkeys were used in Harlowâs study?
Sixteen baby monkeys were used, four in each of four conditions.
What were the four conditions in Harlows (1959) study?
- A cage containing a wire mother producing milk and a towelling mother producing no milk.
- A cage containing a wire mother producing no milk and towelling mother producing milk.
- A cage containing a wire mother producing milk.
- A cage containing a towelling mother producing milk.
What were the findings of Harlowâs (1959) study in regards to the towelling mother?
- Monkeys preferred towelling mother when given a choice of surrogate mothers, regardless of it producing milk
- They even stretched across to the wire mother to feed while still clinging to the towelling mother.
What were the findings of Harlowâs (1959) study in regards to the wire mother?
Monkeys with only a wire surrogate had diarrhoea, a sign of distress.
What did the monkeys do when there was a loud sound in Harlowâs study?
When frightened by a loud noise, monkeys clung to the towelling mother
What took place when the monkeys in Harlowâs )study when they were put in a larger cage?
- In the larger cage, monkeys with towelling mothers explored more and visited their surrogate mother more often
What was the conclusion of Harlowâs (1959) study?
Rhesus monkeys have an innate, unlearned need for contact comfort, suggesting that attachment concerns emotional security more than food.
Harlow et al (1965)
-Raised monkeys in isolation for 3,6,12,24 months. When exposed to other monkeys, physical signs of disturbance were seen, as monkeys were fearful & attacked others, rocked repeatedly and harmed themselves in various ways.
-The degree of disturbance positively correlated with the amount of time spent in isolation.
-As adults, sexual behaviour was avoided, and Harlow had these monkeys be raped to see how they would cope as parents.
-As parents, they were abusive and neglectful towards their children, one monkey actually beat their childâs head to a pulp.
-Other monkeys were raised in isolation, then spent time with normally raised âtherapy monkeysâ who encouraged their behaviour to be normal. This shows that the effects of total isolation are reversable.
Harlow and Suomi (1972)
raised 4 newborn monkeys in isolation for 6 months, then placed each one with a normally raised three-month old female âtherapistâ monkey for two hours three times a week, gradually increasing the amount of contact time.
After 12 months their behaviour was almost normal and by 3yrs they had totally recovered and were able to live among normally raised monkeys. This suggests that the effects of total isolation are reversible.
What are the strengths of Harlowâs research?
- Theoretical value, profound effect on psychologists understanding of human- infant attachment - Harlowâs research showed that attachment doesnât occur due to being fed by a mother figure - it is due to contact comfort, shows the importance of internal working model
- Practical value, important practical applications for example, it has helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and so can prevent it and, these findings are also important in the care of monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild where itâs necessary to have proper attachment figures for baby monkeys and not to separate the baby from itâs mother!
What are the weaknesses of harlowâs research?
- ethical issues, created lasting emotional harm on monkeys as they couldnât form relationships, Sackett (2002)
- problems generalising to humans, as human behaviour is governed by conscious decisions and we cannot attain how animals make decisions.
Sackett (2002)
Student of harlowâs believes his research was so unethical and unjustifiable that the american animal liberation movement was born out of it and many of the monkeys died
