Early Attachment - Animal Studies In Attachment

Question 1

What are animal studies?

Answer 1

Studies carried out on non-human species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons

Question 2

What is ethology?

Answer 2

The scientific and objective study of animal behaviour rather than human behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions

Question 3

What is imprinting?

Answer 3

A form of attachment where the offspring follow the first large moving object

Question 4

Who was Konrad Lorenz?

Answer 4

A famous Australian ethologist

Question 5

What procedure did Lorenz carry out?

Answer 5

• (1935) Took a clutch of gosling eggs and divided them into two groups (one with their natural mother and the other in an incubator)
• When the incubator group hatched they first saw Lorenz and imprinted on him
• He tested this and marked the groups and put them together, but the groups still divided as imprinting was present

Question 6

What did Lorenz find?

Answer 6

• Lorenz’s group showed no recognition for their natural mother
• The process is part of a cortical period in an animals life
• Imprinting doesn’t occur in some animals (does not occur at all if they can’t find an object to imprint on)

Question 7

What were the long-lasting effects of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 7

• (1952) he noted that the process is irreversible and long lasting (one of the geese used to sleep in his bed every night)
• Early imprinting effects on later mating preferences (sexual imprinting)

Question 8

What is sexual imprinting?

Answer 8

When an animal chooses to mate with the same kind of object they imprinted on

Question 9

What did Harlow suggest?

Answer 9

Attachment is related to contact comfort and not food

Question 10

What procedure did Harlow carry out?

Answer 10

• (1959) Harlow created two mothers, each with a different head (one was wire and the other wrapped in cloth)
• 8 infant rhesus monkeys were studied for 165 days
• 4 of the monkeys had their milk bottle on the cloth mother whereas the other 4 had it on the wire mother
• During this time observations were made on how long the monkeys spent with each mother
• Observations were also made on the infants responses when frightened

Question 11

What did Harlow find?

Answer 11

• All 8 monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother (whether it do or didn’t have the milk bottle)
• Those monkeys who fed from the wire mother fed for a short amount of time and then immediately went back to the cloth mother
• When frightened they went to the cloth mother
• When playing they kept within 1 foot of the cloth mother whereas

Question 12

What were the long-lasting effects of Harlow’s study?

Answer 12

• (1959) He continued to study the monkeys as they grew up
• The motherless monkeys developed abnormally
• They were socially abnormal and froze/fled when other monkeys approached them
• They were sexually abnormal and didn’t show normal mating behaviour and didn’t cradle their own babies

Question 13

What did Harlow find within this ‘critical period’ for the monkeys?

Answer 13

• If the monkeys spent time with their peers then they’d seem to recover but only if it was before 3 months
• Having more than 6 months with a wire mother was something they did not appear to be able to recover from