Attachment: Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

Who was Lorenz?

Answer 1

He was an ethologist studying animals under natural conditions. He noted that young precocial animals form strong bonds with the first-moving objects they encounter.

Question 2

What is imprinting?

Answer 2

An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/hatching. If it does not happen at this time it probably will not happen.

Question 3

What was Lorenz’s aim?

Answer 3

To investigate the role of imprinting in the formation of attachments.

Question 4

What was Lorenz’s procedure?

Answer 4

Lorenz took a clutch of goslings eggs and divided them into groups. One was left with an actual mother while the other eggs were placed in an incubator. When the incubator eggs hatched, the first living thing they saw was Lorenz and they started following him around. To test this effect of imprinting, Lorenz marked the two groups to distinguish them and place them together; they had become imprinted on him. Both Lorenz and then actual mother were present.

Question 5

What were the findings of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 5

• One group of goslings followed Lorenz, and the others followed their natural mother.
• Lorenz’s gosling showed no recognition of their natural mother.
• Lorenz stated that this process of imprinting is restricted to a very definite period of the young animal’s life, called a critical period.
• If a young animal is not exposed to a moving object during this period, it will not imprint.
• Imprinting is a process similar to attachment in that it binds a young animal to a caregiver in a special relationship.
• Lorenz did observe that imprinting to humans does not occur in some animals (e.g. curlews).

Question 6

What were the conclusions of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 6

– Lorenz (1952) noted that imprinting is irreversible and long-lasting.

– One of his geese used to sleep on his bed every night.

– Early imprinting had an effect on later mate preference, called sexual imprinting.

– Animals (especially birds) will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they imprinted.

Question 7

A03: Lorenz’s key study

Answer 7

+ Research support
- Criticisms of imprinting

Question 8

A03: Research support

Answer 8

Guiton (1966) found that leghorn chicks imprinted on yellow rubber gloves when they were fed with them during the first few weeks. This supports that animals are not born with a predisposition to imprint on a specific object but any moving object during the critical window. Also, male chicks also tried to mate with gloves, showing early imprinting linked to later reproductive behaviour.

Question 9

A03: Criticisms of imprinting

Answer 9

There were disputes over the characteristics of imprinting. For many years the accepted view of imprinting was that it was irreversible. Now it’s understood that imprinting is more plastic and forgiving. Guiton found he could reverse the imprinting and chickens that try to mate with the rubber gloves. After spending time with their own species, they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour.

Question 10

Who created the Harlows monkey study?

Answer 10

Harry Harlow (1959)

Question 11

What was the aim of Harlows monkeys?

Answer 11

To investigate whether the attachment was based upon comfort as opposed to feeding.

Question 12

What was the procedure of Harlow’s monkeys?

Answer 12

– Harlow created two wire mothers with different heads, one was additionally wrapped in cloth.

– 8 infant rhesus monkeys were studied for 165 days.

– 4 monkeys had the milk on the cloth mother and the other 4 had it on the wire mother.

– Duration of time spent with the two different mothers’ was measured.

– Observations were also made of the monkey’s response when frightened.

Question 13

What were the findings of Harlow’s monkeys?

Answer 13

All 8 monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth mother irrespective of whether it had milk or not.

– Monkeys who fed from the wire mother only spent a short time getting the milk before returning to the cloth mother.

– When frightened, the monkeys clung/went to the cloth mother.

– When playing with new objects the monkeys often kept one foot on the cloth mother (possibly for reassurance).

– These findings suggest that infants do not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them, but to the person offering contact comfort.

Question 14

What were the conclusions of Harlow’s monkeys?

Answer 14

– Harlow found that these monkeys (even those with contact comfort) developed abnormally.

• They were socially abnormal (froze or fled when approached by other monkeys).
• They were sexually abnormal (did not show normal mating behaviour or cradle their own babies).

– Harlow also found that there was a critical period for these effects.

– If the motherless monkeys spent time with their monkey “peers” they seemed to recover but only if this happened before they were 3 months old.

– Having more than 6 months with only a wire mother was something they did not appear able to recover from.

Question 15

A03: Harlow’s monkeys key study

Answer 15

+ Practical application
- Ethical issues

Question 16

A03: Practical application

Answer 16

The results from Harlow’s study are of large practical value since they provide insight into attachment formation which has important real‐world applications that can be useful in a range of practical situations. For example, Howe (1998) reports that the knowledge gained from Harlow’s research has helped social workers to understand risk factors in neglect and abuse cases with human children who can then serve to prevent it from occurring or, at the very least, recognise when to intervene. In addition, there are practical applications which are used in the care of captive wild monkeys in zoos or breeding programmes to ensure that they have adequate attachment figures as part of their care.

Question 17

A03: Ethical issues

Answer 17

Harlow was criticised heavily for the ethics of his research on animals. The baby rhesus monkeys suffered greatly in terms of emotional separation from their biological mother at such an early age due to the procedure Harlow used. If the species of primates are considered sufficiently human‐like to generalise the results, then it stands to reason that the effects of psychological harm that they will have endured are similar to that of a human baby. There is, however, the question of whether the insight obtained was sufficiently important to psychologists’ understanding of attachment that Harlow was justified in his approach.