Attachment : Animal Studies Flashcards
What is etheology?
Studying animals in their natural environment
Whats an animal experiment?
Studying animals in controlled settings with an IV
Who is Lorenz?
Australian zoologist (1903-1989), often regarded as the founder of modern ethology
Lorenz’s imprinting study - procedure
Split large clutch of greylag goose eggs into two batches. One hatched naturally with the mother, other in an incubator with Lorenz being the first moving object the goslings encountered. Once goslings had imprinted, he placed all of them under a box, then removed it and recorded the behaviour
Lorenz’s imprinting study - findings
After birth, the naturally hatched goslings followed their mother while the incubator hatched ones followed Lorenz. When released from the box, the naturally hatched went to their mother whereas the incubator hatched went to Lorenz - showing no bond to their natural mother. Lorenz found how the process of imprinting occurred only a short riod of time after birth (critical period - 4 to 25 hours).
Lorenz’s imprinting study - findings
After birth, the naturally hatched goslings followed their mother while the incubator hatched ones followed Lorenz. When released from the box, the naturally hatched went to their mother whereas the incubator hatched went to Lorenz - showing no bond to their natural mother. Lorenz found how the process of imprinting occurred only a short riod of time after birth (critical period - 4 to 25 hours).
Lorenz’s imprinting study - findings
Conclusion - Lorenz tound certain animals had an innate tendency to respond immediately to specific forms of stimuli.
Lorenz’s imprinting study - advs
- supportive evidence for theory ot imprinting as many researches have found animals attach to the first thing then see after birth → Guiton (1966) used leghorn chicks and exposed them to yellow rubber gloves for feeding during their first few weeks, and found they became imprinted on the gloves. Guiton also found that the male chickens later tried to mate with the gloves - showing that early imprinting is linked to later reproductive behaviour. This increases the reliability of Lorenz’s findings that animals dont have an innate predisposition to imprint to a specitic object, but rather any moving object.
Lorenz’s imprinting study* - disadvs
- animal extrapolation → Lorenz’s research was based on birds and although his findings have been influential in the understanding of humon development, results must be generalised to humans with caution as bird brainsv+ behaviour differ from human’s. Research suggests the mammalian attachment system is considerably different to birds - eg mammals show more emotional attachment to their young, mammals can form attachments anytime, human offspring are much more dependant upon their caregiver vs others.
What is imprinting?
an irreversible form of attachment where close contact is kept with the first large moving object encountered
Who is Bowbly?
Bowbly argued there is an inate preprogramming to stay close to primary care givers and was heavily inspired by Lorenz. He’s regarded as the father of attachment.
Harlow’s Monkeys : attachment study - procedure
Harlow constructed two surrogate mothers in his Pit of despair : one harsh ‘wire mother’ and a soft ‘towel mother’. A sample of 16 baby rhesus monkeys were used across 4 caged conditions:
1. ‘Wire mother’ dispensing milk, ‘towel mother’ with no milk
2. ‘Towel mother’ with milk, ‘wire mother’ with no milk
3. ‘Wire mother’ with milk
4. ‘Towel mother’ with milk
The amount of time the baby monkeys spent with each condition was recorded, alongside how long they spent feeding. To test mother preference during periods of stress, the monkeys were startled with a loud noise and their responses recorded. A larger cage was used in some conditions in order to observe the degree of exploration by the monkey
Harlow’s Monkeys : attachment study - Findings
Even though the infants received nourishment from the wire mother, they still spent more time cuddling with the towel mother. This shows the bond isn’t purely psychological. Furthermore, the babies that grew up with the towel mother showed ‘emotional attachment’ - typical behaviour when presented with stressful variables (they’d cuddle the mothers when stressed until calm). The results for the wire mother were the opposite - with the same stimulus the infants threw themselves on the floor, rocked back and forth, and didnt go to the wire mother for comfort
Harlow’s Monkeys : attachment study - Conclusion
Rhesus monkeys have an innate, unlearned need for contact comfort, suggesting that attachments concern emotional security over food which contrasts against learning theory. Contact comfort is associated with lower levels of stress and a willingness to explore - indicating emotional security. There’s a critical period for attachment to develop, Harlow concluded it was 90 days for the monkeys. After this time, the damage from maternal deprivation was done and attachment was no longer possible
Harlow’s Monkeys : attachment study - effects of maternal deprivation
the ‘rape rack’ was used when Harlow decided to breed the isolate monkeys. When females refused to mate he put them on the rack and had them inseminated. The isolate monkey mothers killed their infants by chewing off fingers and toes, or crushing heads with their teeth.
