Attachment - Animal Studies of Attachment Flashcards
Give an overview of Lorenz’s research into imprinting
- He conducted research on imprinting in 1952
- In many species, the young are presocial meaning they are independently mobile from birth
- Imprinting is part of the process of forming an attachment with the parent animal
- Lorenz noticed that htchling geese would follow the first moving thing they saw until they eventually would never leave it without becoming distressed
What was the aim of Lorenz’s study?
To conduct a study into how imprinting builds an attachment
What was the procedure of Lorenz’s study?
- Divided a clutch of greylag goose eggs
- Half were hatched in an incubator and the first thing those geese saw was Lorenz and the other half were hatched with their mother
- Once hatched, the 2 groups were mixed up and Lorenz observed who they followed
- lorenz varied the time between birth and seeing a moving object so he could measure the critical time for imprinting
What were the findings of Lorenz’s study?
- When all the goslings were put together, they became agitated and went back to their respected mothers
- The goslings hatched in the incubator looked for Lorenz, and the others went back to the mother goose
- Lorenz had to get in a pond in order to teach the goslings how to swim
- Geese born in the incubator also sexually imprinted on humans, they wanted to mate with them
What is the conclusion of Lorenz’s study?
- Following is an instinctive behaviour
- Critical period for imprinting to take place which occured 13-16 hours after hatching
- After that period, the goslings would not become attached to their mother figure
Give an overview of Harlow’s monkey love study and the importance of comfort
1959
* Conducted a study with rhesus monkeys which are closely related to humans
* He built his research off the cupboard love theory which states that infants form attachments to the adults who feed them, with attachment being the second consequence of feeding
* He also noticed that monkeys left alone without a mother quickly died but if they were given something soft to cuddle, they were more likely to survive
What was the aim of Harlow’s study?
To test the importance of contact comfort
What was the procedure of Harlow’s study?
- Conducted lab experiments with mokeys taken from their mothers soon after birth
- Monkeys put in cages with a wire surrogate mother with a feeding bottle attached and a soft cloth mother without a feeding bottle
- Harlow also scared the monkeys to see which mother they’d choose
What were the findings of Harlow’s monkey study?
- The monkeys spent nearly all their time clinging to the cloth mothers and only approached the wire mothers to get milk and once they were full, they went back to the cloth mother
- The monkeys used in the study were introduced to normal monkeys when they were adults: they were more aggressive and less sociable, the female monkeys used in the study who had offspring couldn’t care for their offspring and in some cases killed them, showing how they were maternally deprived
- Harlow found there was a critical period for normal development, the critical period for attachment was 90 days - if infants weren’t provided with a comforting mother figure withing 90 days they would not attach and the damage of privation was irreversible
What’s the conclusion of Harlow’s study?
Monkeys formed attachment with the cloth mother and she was the source of contact comfort and safety if the monkey became frightened. It shows that emotional comfort was more important than feeding for attachment to form and it’s more important for monkey survival.
