AS ATTACHMENT; ANIMAL STUDIES OF ATTACHMENT Flashcards
Describe the aim of Lorenz’ 1935 study
To investigate the imprinting mechanism where the young follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object they meet
Describe the procedure of Lorenz’ 1935 study
- Split a large clutch of goose eggs in half; left one half to hatch naturallt by the mother (control group), and the other half in an incubator where the first large moving object they saw was Lorenz. He then recorded the behaviour that followed
- Lorenz then markjed all the geese and put them underneath an upturned box, then lifted the box away and recorded the following behaviour.
Describe the findings of Lorenz’ 1935 study
C(incubator) followed Lorenz around wherever he went whilst C(control) followed the mother around as normal
This is called imprinting; bird species that are mobile from birth follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object they see
Lorenz identified the critical period; depending on the species it can be just a few hours after hatching/birth; if imprinting doesn’t occur w/in the critical period then the bird won’t attach themselves to a mother figure
Lorenz also found that birds that imprinted onto a human would show courtship beh towards humans; concluded that whatever species a bird imprints onto, it also sexually imprints onto that same species
Evalaute Lorenz’ 1935 research
(+) Guiton (1966) got chickens to imprint onto a yellow rubber glove and found that they later attempted to mate with a yellow rubber glove; supports idea that animals are born with innate mechanism of (sexual) imprinting.
(-) However with experience, the chickens learned to mate with their own species; imprinting has limited power
(-) Can’t generalise to humans; limited explanatory power
(+) Lorenz’ findings suggest that attachment is innate and aid survival, which supports Bowlby’s monotropic theory. Bowlby was heavily influenced by Lorenz, and so Lorenz’ findings helped in part to shape the monotropic theory
Describe the aim of Harlow’s 1958 study
To test the valdity of learning theory (i.e. whether we form attachent through food)
Describe the procedure of Harlow’s 1958 study
- Separated 16 newborn Rhesus monkeys from their mothers and raised them in isolation cages
- Each cage had 2 surrogate monkey mothers; one “harsh, wire” mother and one “soft, towelling” mother
- Sometimes the wire mother gave food, sometimes the towelled one did.
- Monkeys frightened with a loud noise to test for preference of mother during stress; time spent with each mother (as well as feeding time) was recorded.
- Larger cages were also used to test levels of exploration
Describe the findings of Harlow’s 1958 study
- Monkeys spent far more time with soft mother than wire, regardless of who fed them
- Monkeys that only had a wire mother had diarrhoea (sign of stress)
- When frightened with the loud noise, monkeys clung to the soft mother (in conditions she was available in) to seek “contact comfort”
- In large cage conditions, thise with a soft mother explored far more and visited mother more regularly, whilst those with a wire mother just stayed in the corner
- Also followed monkeys with wire mothers into adulthood and found that they were aggressive and unskilled at mating; monkeys that did produce offspring were very uncaring towards them; some even attacked and killed their own offspring
Evaluate Harlow’s 1958 research
(-) Severe ethical criticisms - Harlow was well aware of the suffering he was causing; he even named a piece of his apparatus “the pit of despair”. Rhesus monkeys are very similar to humans and so would’ve suffered just like us
(+) Has helped social workers identify risk factors in child abuse/neglect
(+) Found that food is not the primary reason for attachment and so refutes the learning theory; good theoretical value
(-) Whilst rhesus monkeys are more similar to humans than geese, they still aren’t human and so we shouldn’t necessarily generalise the findings to humans
