Animals Sudies In Attchment

Question 1

Lorenz- Study

Answer 1

• One group of goslings were hatched and first saw biological mother, the other hatched and first saw Lorenz.
• Incubated and controlled who the goslings hatched and saw.
• Observed how goslings responded and observed goslings when he mixed the two conditions.
  Results
• Goslings followed and imitated Lorenz within the first 24hrs, goslings followed and imitated mother.
  Conclusion
• Goslings imprinted on the first thing they see within 24hrs.

Question 2

Lorenz evaluation- Casual explanations of attachment forms (strength)

Answer 2

• Lorenz’s study has a strong casual explanation of how attachment forms.
• Ev- Standardised procedure in the incubation, only difference is whether hatched to biological goose or Lorenz.
• Ex- Therefore, can be certain goslings imprint to the first thing they see within 24hrs. This implies that human infants also imprint to their caregivers upon birth- attachment is biological.
• However, it could be argued that this was an artificial situation for the goslings to be hatched in, and that this may be particular only to Lorenz’s study and the goslings within it.

Question 3

Lorenz evaluation- Research support for imprinting (support)

Answer 3

• However, further research support for imprinting.
• Ev- Chicks were exposed to a yellow rubber glove from birth. They become imprinted on the gloves and male chicks tried to mate with it.
• Ex- Therefore, imprinting is not particular to goslings but also explains how attachment develops through imprinting in other precocial species. This lends credibility to imprinting being linked to attachment.
• However, animal studies can not be generalised to humans. Goslings and chicks are precocial unlike humans who are altricial. Therefore, animals may need to imprint in critical period for survival.

Question 4

Lorenz evaluation- Incorrect to suggest imprinting is permanent (criticism)

Answer 4

• However, Lorenz was incorrect to suppose that imprinting was permanent.
• Ev- Lorenz believed that imprinting was ‘stamped, however in fact imprinting is ‘plastic. When the chicks were encouraged to spend time with other chicks, they engaged in normal mating behaviour.
• Ex- Therefore, Lorenz may not have given the goslings enough time to ‘mix’ with their own species to reverse imprinting. Therefore, there’s no ‘fixed’ and biological critical period as Lorenz assumed.
• This has real life implications- immediate contact with the caregiver is key to attachment. For example, skin to skin contact.

Question 5

Harlow- Study

Answer 5

• 8 monkeys placed in cages from birth for 165days. For 4 the cloth mother lactated and the other 4 the wire monkey lactated.
• Observed the monkeys proximity and time spent on the cloth or wire monkey. Introduced novel stimuli to provoke stress in the monkeys.
  Results
• In both conditions all monkeys proffered the cloth mother.
• They were also fearful of other monkeys, had socialisation issues.
  Conclusion
• There were long term effects that can’t be reversed. Attachment occurred due to comfort not food.

Question 6

Harlow evaluation- Casual explanation on how attachments form (strength)

Answer 6

• Harlow’s study had a strong casual explanation of how attachment forms.
• Ev- All the same environment- cloth and wire mothers. All taken away at birth.
• Ex- Therefore, can state that the cloth monkey was more important in creating a secure base than the wire monkey. Hence comfort is more important in attachment than food.
• However, hard to generalise to all mammals as could be unique factors with those particular monkeys. On the other hand, they are more evolutionary than chicks or goslings- more generalisable to humans.

Question 7

Harlow evaluation- Not generalisable to human attachment (criticism)

Answer 7

• However, not generalisable to human attachment.
• Ev- Monkeys are evolutionary further away than other primates.
• Ex- Monkeys have not developed language, unlike humans. Therefore, there may be more importance placed on comfort than with a human. The critical period for human attachment seems to coincide with with language development. This may be more important than skin to skin contact.
• However, both monkeys and humans are altricial and are underdeveloped when born. Hence they may have more similarities than other studies, so is a better comparison.

Question 8

Harlow evaluation- Criticised for assuming the cloth monkey was preferred (criticism)

Answer 8

• However, Harlow was criticised for assuming the cloth monkey was preferred due to comfort.
• Ev- Critics argued that the monkeys chose the cloth monkey for warmth rather than a secure base/comfort.
• Ex- Therefore, Harlow’s study was not accurately testing attachment behaviour as the monkeys were in an artificially simplistic environment.
• However, Harlow argued this criticism was invalid, as the floor of the cage was heated. If it was warmth they would have laid on the floor, not the cloth monkey. So attachment is about comfort not food.