Attachment - Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
What did Lorenz (1952) observe?
The phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child and a neighbor gave him a newly born duckling that followed him around
What was the procedure of imprinting?
Lorenz randomly divided up a large clutch of goose eggs
What was the findings of the procedure of imprinting?
Half of the eggs hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment; half of the eggs hatched in an incubator where the first moving object was Lorenz
What did Lorenz also investigate?
Sexual imprinting
What did Lorenz observe in sexual imprinting?
That birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans
What happened in Lorenz’s 1952 experiment?
A peacock reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving object the peacock saw were tortoises
What was the result of Lorenz’s 1952 experiment?
As an adult the peacock would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises- the peacock has undergone sexual imprinting
What did Harlow observe?
That newborns kept alone in a bare cage often died but that they usually survived if given something soft to cuddle
What procedure did Harlow carry out in 1958?
He reared 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model mothers. One mother dispensed milk but was plain wire, the other mother dispensed milk but was cloth covered
What were the findings of Harlow’s 1958 experiment?
The baby monkeys got comfort and stayed with the cloth covered mother more than the plain wire mother. This shows that comfort was more important than food
What symptoms did the maternally deprived monkeys have?
More aggressive, less sociable, attacked their children when they became mothers
What was the critical period for Harlow?
A mother figure had to be introduced to aa young monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form
What is one strength of Lorenz’s research?
Research support
What is the evaluation of Lorenz’s research having research support?
P: Existance of support for the concept of imprinting
E: Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) supports Lorenz’s ideas of imprinting. Chicks were exposed to shapes that moved
E: Shape combinations were moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely
L: Young animals are born to imprint
What is one limitation of Lorenz’s research?
Generalisability of humans
What is the evaluation of Lorenz’s research having generalisability of humans?
P: Generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans
E: Mammalian attachment system is more complex in birds
E: Mammals attachment is a 2 way process
L: Not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas to humans
What is one strength of Harlow’s research?
Real world value
What is the evaluation of Harlow’s research having real world value?
P: Real world application
E: Howe (1998) Helped social workers understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor
E: Now understand the importance of breeding programmes in the wild
L: Not just theoretical but practical
What is one limitation of Harlow’s research?
Generalisability to humans
What is the evaluation of Harlow’s research having generalisability to humans?
P: Ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans
E: All mammals share some common attachment behaviours
E: Human brain and behaviour is more complex than monkeys
L: Not be appropiate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans
