Attachment Flashcards
What is imprinting?
The process by which young animals follow and form and attachment to the first large object they meet
What is the aim of Lorenz’s study?
To investigate the mechanisms of imprinting where the youngsters follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet
Briefly outline the procedure of Lorenz’s study
Split a large clutch of grey lag goose eggs into two batches, one of which was hatched naturally by the mother and the other hatched in an incubator with Loren’s making sure he was the first moving object the newly hatched goslings encountered. Following behaviour was then recorded. Lorenz then marked all of the goslings so he could determine wether they were from naturally hatched batch of eggs or the incubated ones and placed them under an upturned box. The box was then removed and following behaviour was again recorded
What is the conclusion from Lorenz’s study?
Imprinting is a form of attachment whereby close contact is kept with the first large moving object encountered
What are the 4 findings of Lorenz’s study?
- Immediately after birth the naturally hatched baby goslings followed their mother about, while the incubator hatched goslings followed Lorenz around
- When released from the upturned box, the naturally hatched goslings went straight to their mother, while the incubated goslings went to Lorenz. These bonds proved to be irreversible
- Lorenz also noted how imprinting would only occur within a brief, set time period between 4 and 25 hours after hatching
- Lorenz subsequently reported on how goslings imprinted onto humans
Can the findings and conclusions of Lorenz’s study be generalised to groups outside of this sample?
The findings and conclusions cannot be generalised to groups outside of this sample because they are birds and we are mammals. They say that attachments are formed will be completely different between the two
Would the results of Lorenz’s be consistent if it was repeated?
Hess replicated the research and found very similar results. Thus you could argue that the data is reliable. However, there is confounding evidence that shows the same experiment but done with ducklings showed that they could imprint after a certain period
Can the findings of Lorenz’s study lead to practical applications that might help people in the wider world?
Yes, this piece of information has been useful in developmental psychology. Bowlby used Lorenz’s research as part of his theories. Bowlby wanted to find out if there is a certain period of time in which attachments can be formed, from Lorenz’s study, Bowlby found that there is a critical person in which attachments are formed
Can the findings and conclusions of Lorenz’s study be applied to ‘real life’ settings or is it an artificial set up
Yes, it is high in ecological validity because it is a field experiment. However, the goslings hatched by Lorenz were in a lab in a controlled environment. The manipulation was done in a lab so this lacks ecological validity
Are there ethical issues with Lorenz’s study?
Yes, imprinting is irreversible to the nervous system and the goslings will forever remain the attachment to Lorenz. It could be argued in a sense that they don’t have any free will. However, they were well looked after and no harm or distress from Lorenz was caused. The opportunity for them to reproduce was taken away from them
What was the aim of Harlow’s study?
To test the learning theory by comparing attachment behaviour in baby monkeys given a wire surrogate mother producing milk with those given a soft towelling mother producing no milk
Briefly outline the procedure or Harlow’s study
Two types of surrogate mother were constructed - a harsh ‘wire mother’ and a soft ‘towelling mother’. Sixteen baby monkeys are used, four in each condition.
- a cage containing a wire mother producing no milk and a towelling mother producing no milk
- a cage containing a wire mother producing no milk and a towelling mother producing milk
- a cage containing a wire mother producing milk
- a cage containing a towelling mother producing milk
The amount of time spent with each other, as well as feeding time, was recorded. The monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to test for mother preference during stress. A larger cage was used to test the monkeys degree of exploration
What are the 4 findings from Harlow’s study?
1) monkeys preferred contact with the towelling mother when given a choice of surrogate mothers regardless of wether she produced milk; they even stretched across to the wire mother to feed while still clinging to the towelling mother
2) monkeys with only a wire surrogate had diarrhoea, a sign of stress
3) when frightened by a loud noise, monkeys cling to the towelling mother in conditions where she was available
4) in the larger cage conditions, monkeys with towelling mothers explored more and visited their surrogate mother more often
What are the conclusions from Harlow’s study?
Rhesus monkeys have an innate need for contact comfort, suggesting that attachment concerns emotional security more than food. Contact comfort is associated with lower levels of stress and a willingness to explore, indicating emotional security
Can the findings and conclusions of Harlow’s study be generalised to groups outside of the sample?
Monkeys are a very similar species to humans so could be generalised to humans. However it is a small sample size and monkeys are once again precocious and humans would need more looking after than a monkey
Would the results of Harlow’s study be consistent if it was repeated?
Similar studies in humans, such as the Romanian orphanage studies suggesting that deprivation can have a negative effect on attachment
Can the findings of Harlow’s study lead to practical applications that might help people in the wider world?
Yes because it helps us understand the importance of the bond between an infant and it’s caregiver and that bond is more strongly related to comfort than food
Are there any confounding variables in Harlow’s study?
Yes, the face of the cloth mother was different to the wire mother. The cloth mother’s face looked more comforting and realistic to that of a monkey. This could be why they attracted to the cloth mother and not because of the cloth itself
What are the ethical issues in Harlow’s study?
- the monkeys were kept in small boxes. Privation was experienced and the mothers themselves were harmed as they lost their babies 6-12 hours after birth. The babies were stopped from forming a relationship/bond with their mothers
What is contradictory evidence for the learning theory of attachment?
- Harlow’s monkeys - monkeys preferred non feeding cloth mother to feeding wire mother
- Schaffer and Emerson found infants most attached to the most responsive cater, which was not necessarily the one who fed them
How does Bowlby’s theory differ from the learning theory of attachment?
Learning theory states that the behaviour and ability to create attachments is learned through two ways, classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Whereas Bowlby’s theory suggests that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others because this will help them to survive - they have an innate need to attach to one main attachment figure (monotropy)
What was Bowlby’s main idea?
That attachment is not about food as claimed by the learning theory, but serves as an evolutionary purpose helping individuals survive and reproduce
What are the 6 main points of Bowlby’s monotropic attachment theory?
- Attachment is innate and adaptive
- Care giving is innate and adaptive
- Attachment is monotropic
- Attachment has a ‘critical’ period
- Attachment provides a secure base
- Attachment forms our internal working model
What does social releasers mean?
Babies are born with the tendency to display certain innate behaviours (called social releasers) which help ensure proximity and contact with the mother or attachment figure (e.g. crying, smiling, crawling, etc)
What does monotropy mean?
A child has an innate need to attach to one main attachment figure
What is a primary attachment figure?
An emotional bond between two people
What is the continuity hypothesis?
Suggests that infants who have a secure relationship with their caregiver will grow up being more emotionally and socially competent than infants with insecure attachments
- suggests that there is a clear link between early attachment and later emotional behaviour
What are the 4 main predictions of evolutionary theory of attachment?
- Attachment will form with those who respond to child’s signals
- There will be a special attachment figure that is more important than others
- Disruption of attachments will have developmental consequences
- Type of attachments in infancy can predict emotional behaviour in adulthood
What is the internal working model in terms of bowlby’s theory of attachment?
Attachments provide a secure base for the child to explore the world. This means the child is happy to venture off on their own, knowing their caregiver is there to return to when they need them. It also provides an internal working model or internalised concept about how relationships work which acts as a template for all later love relationships
Is there supporting evidence for Bowlby’s explanation of attachment?
- Lorenz found there was a critical period for geese to imprint on their caregiver (12-17 hours after hatching) which supports the idea that there may also be a critical period for human attachment
- Harlow found baby monkeys went to a cloth surrogate mother (with no food) rather than a wire mother (with food) when they were scared suggesting sensitivity not food is important in attachments
What are methodological problems with the supporting evidence for Bowlby’s theory of attachment?
Use of animals means that we cannot generalise behaviour from animals to humans as evolutionary discontinuity means that humans are not identical to animals and our behaviours are characteristics relating to attachment may not be the same
What is supporting evidence for the continuity hypothesis?
The Minnesota longitudinal study (Sroufe et al) found that infants with secure attachments were dated as more socially competent, less isolate and more popular in late adolescence than insecurely attached infants
Does Bowlby’s theory of attachment have real world application?
Bowlby’s theory was influential in changing attitudes to parenting and childcare - recognising the important of caregiver sensitivity and the idea that merely meeting an infant’s physical needs is not enough to build strong attachments
What is contradictory evidence for Bowlby’s theory of monotropy?
- Schaffer and Emerson found that at about 7 months, 29% of the children had already formed several attachments simultaneously so maybe monotropy is not so significant and children do not all have one attachment figure that is more important than all the others
- Kagan suggests continuity between early attachment and later relationships maybe due to another factor - the innate temper you the child, rather than the type of parenting they receive
Briefly outline the procedure of Ainsworth’s strange situation
- Infant and caregiver placed in a room with toys. Child free to explore the room
- Stranger enters, talks to caregiver and attempts to play with child
- Caregiver leaves child with stranger
- Caregiver re-enters, greets infant and stranger leaves
- Caregiver leaves and child is alone
- Stranger re-enters and attempts to interact with infant
- Stranger leaves and caregiver re-enters
What type of sampling is used in ainsworth’s method to record the data?
Event sampling
How old were the participants in Ainsworth’s study?
9-18 months
What are the 5 behaviour categories in Ainsworth’s study?
- Proximity seeking
- Reunion behaviour
- Exploration + secure base behaviour
- Separation anxiety
- Stranger anxiety
