attachment - animal studies

Question 1

what did lorenz want to study

Answer 1

imprinting - if birds form a strong bond with and follow around their mother shortly after hatching

Question 2

what was the procedure of lorenzs study

Answer 2

goose eggs were randomly divided: half were taken to be hatched by lorenz and the other half were hatched by the biological mother

Question 3

what were the findings of lorenzs study

Answer 3

• the goslings he hatched imprinted on him - he put them all in a box and once released the ones that imprinted on him continued to follow him around
• the goslings had a critical period of around 32 hours, if the gosling did not see a large moving object to imprint on in these first few hours they lost the ability to imprint

Question 4

what does lorenzs research suggest

Answer 4

imprinting is a strong evolutionary/biological feature in attachment

Question 5

what did harlow want to study

Answer 5

the cupboard love theory - that babies love their mothers because they feed them

Question 6

what was the procedure of harlows study

Answer 6

infant monkeys were placed in cages with 2 surrogate mothers, one provided food but no comfort as its body was made of exposed wire and the other provided comfort as the body was covered in cloth but no food. the time spent with each mother was recorded as well as each mother the monkeys ran to when scared by a mechanical monkey

Question 7

what were harlows findings

Answer 7

monkeys spent most of their time with comfort providing mothers and only visited the food mother when they needed to eat. they returned to the cloth mother when they were frightened. in follow up research he found the maternal deprivation his study had caused resulted in permanent social disorders

Question 8

what does harlows research suggest

Answer 8

that monkeys have a biological need to physical contact ( contact comforter )

Question 9

what are the strengths of animal studies on attachment

Answer 9

• harlows finding on contact comfort have been highly influential as bowlbly argued, similar to monkeys, infants crave comfort from their mothers attempting to form a monotropic relationship
• lorenzs findings on the critical period in geese have been highly influential as bowlby argued there is a similar critical period for humans ( 6-30 months )
• there are practical applications for lorenzs and harlows work. knowledge initially gained from these studies which were later developed by bowlby have been applied to early childcare for example immediate physical contact after birth

Question 10

what are the weaknesses of animal studies on attachment

Answer 10

• the generalisation of animal behaviour to human psychology is problematic. humans and animals have very different biology, and humans have various social and cultural experiences that influence their behaviour
• harlow was criticised on ethical grounds to the harm caused on many intentionally orphaned primate infants and for causing high stress levels, public knowledge of these studies has harmed psychologys reputation