Chapter 3.4 - Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
What are animal studies in psychology?
Studies carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans, for either ethical or practical reasons
What is imprinting?
Where an offspring will follow the first moving object they see once born
What is sexual imprinting?
Where animals will attach to and display sexual behaviours towards the first moving object or animal they see directly after birth.
Describe the procedure of Lorenz’s research (1952)
- A clutch of goose eggs were divided into two groups
- One half were hatched with their mother goose in their natural environment
- The other half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
- The groups were mixed up later
Describe the findings of Lorenz’s research
- Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place
- Up to 16 hours after hatching/giving birth
Describe sexual imprinting in Lorenz’s study of peacocks
- A peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo saw giant tortoises as its first moving object
- A s an adult, this bird would only direct courtship towards giant tortoises
- It had undergone sexual imprinting
What is a strength for Lorenz’s research? (research support)
- Study in 1995 supports Lorenz’s idea of imprinting
- Chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved
- A range of shapes moved and they followed the original closely
- Young animals are born with the innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present during the critical period
What is a limitation for Lorenz’s research? (generalisability to humans)
- The mammalian attachment system is different and more complex than that in birds
- Two-way process in mammals compared to the one way emotional attachment in birds
- Not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas to humans
Describe the procedure of Harlow’s research
- 1958
- Reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
- One dispensed milk and was plain-wire
- One dispensed milk and was covered with a cloth
Describe the findings of Harlow’s research
- The monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain one
- Sought comfort from the cloth covered one regardless of which mother dispensed milk
- Contact comfort was of more importance than food
Describe the findings of Harlow’s monkeys into adulthood
- Monkeys reared with the plain-wire mother only were the most dysfunctional
- Those reared with the cloth-covered mother were socially abnormal
- More aggressive, less sociable and bred less compared to typical monkeys
- Those who became mothers neglected their young and others attacked them- also killing some
What did Harlow conclude about the critical period for monkeys?
- A mother had to be introduced within 90 days for an attachment to form
- Otherwise attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible
What is a strength for Harlow’s research? (real world value)
- Helped social workers and psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience can be a risk factor in child development
- Intervention prevents poor outcomes
- Understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild
What is a limitation for Harlow’s research? (generalisability to humans)
- Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds
- But the human brain and behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys
- Not appropriate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans
What is another evaluation for Harlow’s research? (ethical issues)
- Caused long-term distress to the monkeys
- Findings and conclusions have important theoretical and practical applications
