Attachment - Methods in Attachment Research Flashcards
Procedure Lorenz (1952) Imprinting
Konrad Lorenz randomly divided 12 goose eggs, half hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment and the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
Mixed all goslings together to see whom they would follow.
Lorenz also observed birds and their later courtship behaviouor.
Findings and Conclusions
Lorenz (1952) Imprinting
Incubator group followed Lorenz, control group followed the mother.
Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place, e.g. few hours after hatching. If imprinting did not occur within that time, chicks did not attach themselves to the mother figure.
Sexual imprinting also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable characteristics required in a mate.
Procedure
Harlow (1958) Importance of Contact Comfort
Harry Harlow reared 16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’:
- In one condition, milk was dispensed by the plain wire ‘mother’.
- In a second condition, it was dispensed by the cloth-covered ‘mothers’.
The monkeys’ preferences were measured.
As a further measure of attachment-like behaviour, the reactions of the monkeys to more frightening situations were observed. For example, Harlow placed the monkeys in novel situations with novel objects. He also added a noisemaking teddy bear to the environment.
Harlow and his colleagues also continued to study the monkeys who had been deprived of their ‘real’ mother into adulthood.
Findings and Conclusions
Harlow (1958) Importance of Contact Comfort
Baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and regardless of which dispensed milk. This suggests that contact comfort was of more importance than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
The monkeys sought comfort from the cloth wire mother when frightened.
As adults, the monkeys that had been deprived of their real mothers suffered severe consequences: they were more aggressive, less sociable and less skilled in mating than other monkeys. They also neglected and sometimes killed their own offspring.
What are the strengths of animal studies of attachment?
- A strength is support for the concept of imprinting
- A strength is that Harlow’s research has important practical applications.
What are the weaknesses of animal studies of attachment?
- One limitation is generalising findings and conclusions from birds to humans.
- Some of Lorenz’s observations and conclusions have been questioned.
- Harlow faced severe criticism for the ethics of his research.
- A limitation is generalising from monkeys to humans.
Why is having support for the concept of imprinting a strength?
Guiton (1966) found that chicks imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults. This suggests that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development.
Why is Harlow’s research having important practical applications a strength?
It has helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse and so intervene to prevent it (Howe 1998). We also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild. The usefulness of Harlow’s research increases its value.
Why is generalising findings and conclusions from birds to humans a weakness?
The mammalian attachment system is quite different from that in birds. For example, mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their young. This means that it is not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas to humans.
Why is Lorenz’s observations and conclusions being questioned a weakness?
Guiton (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing-up gloves tried to mate with them as adults. But with experience they learned to mate with their own kind. This study suggests that the effects of imprinting are not as long-lasting as Lorenz believed.
Why is Harlow facing severe criticism for the ethics of his research a weakness?
Rhesus monkeys are similar enough to humans for us to generalise findings, which also means their suffering was presumably human-like. Harlow himself was aware of the suffering caused. He referred to the wire mothers as ‘iron maidens’. named after a medieval torture device. The couter-argument is that Harlow’s research was sufficiently important to justify the procedures.
Why is generalising from monkeys to humans a weakness?
Although monkeys are clearly more similar to humans than Lorenz’s geese, they are not humans. For example, human babies develop speech-like communication (‘babbling’). This may influence the formation of attachments. Psychologists disagree on the extent to which studies of non-human primates can be generalised to humans.
Who was Stephen Lea (1984)?
Lea (1984) proposed that instinct gives the chicks the concept or template of the mother but the environment has to supply the details.
What is a critical period?
The period in which imprinting needs to take place. If imprinting does not occur within that time, children will not attach to a mother figure.
What do Lorenz’s findings suggest about the cause of attachment?
Suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.
