L9-L12 Flashcards
Describe Harlow (1959) procedure
Harlow (1959) conducted landmark study on attachment
- created two wire ‘mothers’ + one was wrapped in a soft cloth
- 8 infnst rhesus monkeys seperated from their mother at hurth + studied for 165 days
- placed on a cage w/ two wire mothers
- half fed from cloth mother + other half fed from exposed wire mother
- observations were made of the monkey’s responses to being frightened by a mechanical teddy bear + how coped in being in a new room w/ unfamiliar toys
Describe Harlow (1959) findings
- all 8 monkeys spent most of their time on the soft cloth mother, regardless of whether they fed them or not
- monkeys only stayed on wire exposed mother long enough to be fed before returning to soft cloth mother
- when frightened by mechanical teddy bear = clung to soft cloth mother
- when playing with new objects = placed one foot on soft cloth mother
- not confident to explore new room without soft cloth mother
COMFORR MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOOD
Describe the long term effects from Harlow (1959) experiment
- monkeys develoed abnormally = froze or fled when approached by other monkeys. They did not show normal mating behaviour and did not cradle their own babies. If the monkeys spenttime with other monkeys then they could recover but only if this happened before they were three months old. Having more than threemonths with only a wire mother was something they could not recover from
What is an ad of Harlow (1959) experiment?
Schaffer and Emerson (1964) also found that food is not necessary for attachment to form. They discovered that babies are often attached to people who play with them, rather than people who feed them. In 39% of cases even though the mother was the one who fed the baby the baby was more attached to someone else.
What are the disads of Harlow (1959) experiment?
- This study could be considered to be unethical. The monkeys were removed from their mothers, which would have been very traumatic, and they were then deliberately scared to see how they would react. This led to long-term emotional harm, when these monkeys were older and encountered other monkeys they either froze or fled. They also had difficulty caring for their own young (did not cradlethem) as they had not been cared for themselves.
- It is problematic to extrapolate the findings from this study to attachment in human infants. What applies to a non-human species does not necessarily apply to human infants. Humans are physiologically very different from monkeys as well as having several other influences that monkeys do not have, such as culture, society, peers, upbringing etc.
- The attachment bond between human infants and their attachment figures is far more complexthan it is in monkeys. For instance, there are several different types of attachment styles that human infants can have (e.g. secure, avoidant, resistant)
Describe Lorenz (1939) procedure
Lorenz was an ethologist = investigated imprinting - instinct in many animals to attach to the first moving thing they see after they are born
- took a clutch of gosling eggs = divided them into two groups
- one group left to hatch with natural mother present, other group placed in an incubator (first moving thing they saw was Lorenz when hatched)
- marked the two groups to distinguish begween them before placing them all together again
Describe Lorenz (1935) findings
- goslings quickly divided themselves up = one group following natural mother, incubator ones following Lorenz showed no recognition of natural mother
- process of imprinting is restricted to critical period in animal’s life = not exposed to moving object during this early period, then animal will not imprint = 2 days
- Lorenz had to teach goslings how to swim + always returned to him when he called
Describe Lorenz (1935) long-term effects
Lorenz (1935) noted several features of imprinting, for example the process is irreversible and long lasting. One of the Geese that imprinted on him, called Martina, used to sleep on his bed every night.
Lorenz (1935) also discovered that this early imprinting had an effect on later mate preferences, called sexual imprinting.Animals (especially birds) will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they were imprinted
What was an ad of Lorenz (1935)?
Other studies support the idea that animals are born with an instinct to attach to the first moving object they see. Gutton (1966) demonstrated that chickens exposed to yellow rubber gloves during feeding in theirfirst few weeks of life imprinted on the gloves.
What was a disad of Lorenz (1935)?
Imprinting is more reversible than Lorenz thought. Gutton (1966) found that he could reverse the imprinting in chickens that had initially tried to mate with the yellow rubber gloves. After spending time with their own species they were able to engage innormal sexual behaviour with other chickens.
What was the Minnesota Parent-Child Project? (Sroufe et al. 2005)
Minnesota Parent-Child Project:
- studied the infouence of early attachment on childhood relationships
- began in 1975 between mother and child
Describe Sroufe et al (2005) procedure (Minnesota Parent-Child Project)
Since 1975 themothers’ and the childrens’ behaviour has been assessed using questionnaires and observations. For example, the mothers and children were videotaped(intra-observerreliability)while playing for a period of 10-15 minutes at home. The mothers were aware that they were being videotaped(possible social desirability bias). Two observers analysed the recordings(inter-observerreliability).
Describe Sroufe et al (2005) findings (Minnesota Parent-Child Project)
As children, those who were classed as securely attached as infants were:
- rated the highest for social competence
- were less socially isolated
- were more popular with their peers
- were more empathetic
Those who are securely attached will have a positive internal working modelfor relationships and so are better at forming and maintaining relationships with others.
Describe long term effects of minnesota parent-child project
If infants do not have an early attachment during the critical periodthis would result in a lack of an internal working model for attachment. This could lead to attachment disorderwhere children have no preferred attachment figure, and an inability to interact and relate to others. This becomes evident from the age of five and is usually caused by severe neglect or frequent change of caregivers.
What is the ad of Minnesota Parent-Child Project?
This studyis reliable.Simpson et al. (2007) found similar results; they assessed infant attachment styles at one year of age. Several studies havefound that children who were securely attached as infants were rated as having higher social competence as children and were closer to their friends aged 16
