Attachment - Animal Studies Flashcards
What are animal studies used to look at?
The formation of early bonds between non-human parents and their offspring
Why can animal studies help us understand attachment in humans?
Because attachment is common to a range of species
Who is Lorenz?
One of the most prominent ethnologists (animal researcher)
When did Lorenz first observe imprinting?
When he was child
How did Lorenz gain an interest in imprinting?
A neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling that began to follow him around
What two groups did Lorenz divide the gosling eggs into?
1 group left with their natural mother
1 group placed in an incubator
When the incubator eggs hatched, what was the first thing the goslings saw?
Lorenz
When the natural mother eggs hatched, what was the first thing they saw?
Their mother
What did Lorenz record once the goslings hatched?
The behaviour of all the goslings
What did the goslings do once they hatched? IMPRINTING
They proceeded to follow the first moving object they saw during the critical period
Critical period
The first 12-17 hours of the goslings’ life
What suggests that attachment is innate and genetically programmed?
The group born with their natural mother followed their mother goose. The group born in an incubator followed Lorenz
What do the results of Lorenz’s study support?
It supports having a biological basis for an attachment is adaptive
Consequences of imprinting
Has consequences for short-term survival
What does imprinting occur without?
Without any feeding taking place
When will an animal not imprint?
The animal will not imprint if it hasn’t seen a moving object during the critical period
When may it be unlikely for any attachment to develop?
If no imprint has developed in 32 hours
Imprinting is… (adjective)
Reversible
Sexual imprinting
Later mates chosen based upon the object they imprinted on
Courtship behaviour
Set of display behaviours in which an animal attempt to attract opposite sex
Where does a young animal learn the characteristics of a desirable mate from?
The object it imprinting on
What did Guiton find about sexual imprinting?
Animals aren’t born with predisposition to only imprint on specific things, but on any moving thing present in the critical period
How did Guiton research sexual imprinting using chicks?
He exposed them to yellow rubber gloves for feeding them during first fear weeks and they became imprinted on the gloves. They were found to later try and mate with the glove
Evaluation point of Lorenz research: generalising
No research has done to suggest that this links to humans
Evaluation point of Lorenz research: Sexual imprinting
Guiton stated that he could reverse this and later found chickens were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with other chickens
Evaluation point of Lorenz research: Influential findings
Findings enabled other psychologists (Bowlby) to further explore the critical period
What was the aim of Harlow’s research?
To demonstrate attachment is not based on the feeding bond
What animal did Harlow investigate?
Monkeys
What did Harlow do with 16 monkeys?
He separated them from their mothers immediately after birth and placed them in cages with access to 2 surrogate mothers
What were the two surrogate mothers made out of?
Once made out of wire and the other one was made out of wire covered in soft cloth
Surrogate
Substitute
How were the 16 monkeys separated?
8 monkeys could get milk from wire mother and 8 monkeys could get milk from the cloth mother
How many days were the monkeys studied by Harlow for?
165 days
Who did both groups of monkeys spend the most time with?
The cloth mother - even though she had no milk for one group
When would an infant go to the wire mother?
Only when they were hungry
Who would the infant take refuge with if a frightening object was placed in the cage?
The cloth mother
Result of monkeys left for 90 days or more in the cage?
They turned out aggressive and the females became inadequate mothers
Effects for monkeys left in cage for less than 90 days
The effects could be reversed
Long lasting effects of Harlow’s research: Social abnormalities
Monkey’s froze or fled when approached by other monkeys
Long lasting effects of Harlow’s research: Sexual abnormalities
Monkey’s didn’t show normal mating behaviour and didn’t cradle their own babies
Evaluation of Harlow’s research: Ethical concerns
Study created lasting emotional harm for monkeys
Evaluation of Harlow’s research: Valuable insight
Provides valuable insight into development of attachment and social behaviour
Evaluation of Harlow’s research: Confounding variables
2 white heads of wire and cloth monkey were very different
