Attachment: Animal Studies of Attachment

Question 1

Given the differences between humans and animals, why do we bother doing research on animals at all?

Answer 1

1. Practical: animals breed quicker; researchers can see results across several generations sooner.
2. Ethical: we are willing to put animals in more harmful situations than we are to humans (whether it’s right or not).
3. Demand characteristics lack in animals.

Question 2

Imprinting study

Answer 2

 Lorenz (1952): certain animals have innate tendency to respond immediately to a specific stimulus (visual markings or sounds) & will follow anyone displaying the stimulus; imprinting.
 Critical period: the time when imprinting needs to take place. Lorenz determined it was anytime from birth to 36 hours.
 Lorenz (1952): relationships between imprinting and adult mate preferences: sexual imprinting.

Question 3

Evaluation: Imprinting

Answer 3

 Other animal research supports his theories:
- Imprinting: Regolin & Vallortigara (1995) – chicks imprinting on a shape and then following that shape around more than other shapes e.g., circle vs triangle
- Sexual imprinting: Guiton et al (1966) – chicks which imprinted on a rubber glove later tried to mate with it. They then learned to court other chickens.
 Lack of generalizability to humans:
- Mammalian attachment is less simple. Attachment is more of a two-way process.

Question 4

Maternal deprivation

Answer 4

emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between child and their mother or mother substitute.

Question 5

 Critical period

Answer 5

a mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for attachment to form. After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.

Question 6

What is the real-world usefulness of Harlow’s ghastly research?

Answer 6

• Harlow’s research has a large amount of real-world application because it stresses the importance of contact-comfort. Howe (1998) found that Harlow’s study helped social workers and psychologists realise the effects of a lack of bonding experiences in a child’s life and allowed them to intervene to prevent bad outcomes.

Question 7

• How generalizable is his work to humans and how does this differ to Loren’z work?

Answer 7

I believe there is still a lack of generalizability as monkeys and humans are different species however, monkeys are a lot closer to humans than Lorenz birds as they are mammalian.

Question 8

Evaluation: Harlow ethics

Answer 8

• Harlow’s research has major ethical issues because it is causing severe psychological distress to monkeys, and monkeys obviously cannot give consent to be in the study. The study could have been conducted in a much more merciful way by conducting field observational experiments on children with a lack of bonding experiences instead.

Question 9

• Animal Studies: summary

Answer 9

• Lorenz (imprinting): certain animals tend to respond to stimulus immediately and follow anyone displaying that stimulus. Takes place during a critical period (birth to 36 hours).
• Harlow: showed the importance of comfort in interaction, monkey preferred cloth mother as they could touch it and feel comfort

Question 10

Harlow:

Answer 10

showed the importance of comfort in interaction, monkey preferred cloth mother as they could touch it and feel comfort

Question 11

Lorenz (imprinting)

Answer 11

certain animals tend to respond to stimulus immediately and follow anyone displaying that stimulus. Takes place during a critical period (birth to 36 hours).