Lesson 4 - Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

Lorenz (1935)

Answer 1

• Konrad Lorenz split goose eggs into two batches. One was hatched naturally by the mother and the other in an incubator. He made sure he was the first living moving object the incubator goslings saw when they were born, so he could imprint himself on them.
• He put the goslings in an upturned box and then removed it. The incubator goslings followed Lorenz around and the naturally born goslings followed the mother.
• He found that the critical period was between 4-25 hours after birth.

Question 2

Sexual Imprinting

Answer 2

• A case study by Lorenz (1952) was about a peacock who was born in a reptile house of a zoo and the first living things it saw were giant tortoises and it proceeded to try and mate with them. This is sexual imprinting.
• Guiton (1966) found similar results with leghorn chicks who were fed with a yellow rubber glove. They later formed an attachment to it and tried to mate with the glove.
• However, the definition of imprinting was initially thought to be irreversible, but Guiton found that after spending time with its own species, the chicks were unattached to the glove.

Question 3

Harlow (1959)

Answer 3

• Harlow used rhesus monkeys to see if attachments are formed through food.
• New born monkeys were separated at birth from the mothers and raised in a cage.
• Each cage had a baby blanket and when it was removed, the monkeys became distressed, similar to when they were separated from their mothers. Attachment is not based on food

Harlow created 4 conditions, 4 monkeys in each:

• A cage with a ‘wire mother’ who produced milk and a ‘towelling mother’ who did not
• A cage with a WM producing no milk and a TM that did
• A cage with a WM producing milk
• A cage with a TM producing milk
• The monkeys preferred the towelling mother regardless of whether it produced milk and preferred it in times of stress. Monkeys who only had a WM had diarrhoea, a sign of distress.

This study shows that the monkeys have an unlearned need for contact comfort and emotional support and this is not based on food

Question 4

Weaknesses of Lorenz’s study

Answer 4

• Guiton (1966) showed that imprinting is reversible and not completely set in stone. They can be reversed by spending time with your own species.
• Lorenz experimented with imprinting in birds, however this cannot be generalised to humans as the mammalian attachment system may be different.

Question 5

Harlow (1965)

Answer 5

• Harlow raised newborn monkeys in total isolation from other living beings for 3, 6, 12 or 24 months. As a result they showed signs of psychological disturbance, hugging themselves and rocking back and forth.
• Harlow reintegrated the monkeys but they showed no social interaction but to attack each other and hurt themselves by biting their limbs and pulling out their hair. The degree of disturbance was proportional to the amount of time isolated.
• They could not undergo sexual courtship as adults.
• To see how they would cope as parents, Harlow developed a ‘rape rack’ where monkeys would be forcibly mated. They would abuse their babies and bite their babies limbs off and crush their heads.

Social interactions are vital for social and emotional development

Question 6

Harlow and Suomi (1972)

Answer 6

• They raised 4 newborn babies in isolation for 6 months and then proceeded to place them with a normal 3-month old female ‘therapist’ monkey. After 12 months their behaviour was almost normal and by 3 years they had fully recovered and were able to live normally among other monkeys.

The effects of isolation are fully reversible

Question 7

Weaknesses of Harlow’s studies

Answer 7

• There are major ethical issues. These studies should not be carried out on animals and many died as a result. These studies cannot therefore be replicated.
• We cannot always generalise studies on animals to human behaviour, as the way we think may not be the same

Question 8

Strengths of Harlow’s studies

Answer 8

• Harlow has shown that attachment is not necessarily due to ‘cupboard love’ but contact comfort and emotional support. He also showed the importance of early attachments for later relationships (internal working model)
• His studies have been applied to social care and understanding the effects of child neglect and into the care of captive monkeys in zoos and the importance of letting them be with their mothers.