PAPER 1 - ATTACHMENT - animal studies

Question 1

what did Harlow want to study?

Answer 1

how a newborn rhesus monkey bonds with their mother

Question 2

what were the monkey infants dependent on their mothers for?

Answer 2

nutrition
socialisation
comfort
protection

Question 3

what was harlows explanation for attachment?

Answer 3

attachment develops as a result of the mother providing tactile comfort - suggests infants have an innate need to touch and cling

Question 4

what was the aim of harlows monkey experiment?

Answer 4

to investigate the basis of attachment/ whether food is the basis of attachment

Question 5

what was the procedure of harlows monkey experiment?

Answer 5

• 2 mother stimuli - 1 wire, 1 cloth
• one wire mother produced food
• 8 infant monkeys were used
• monkeys were frightened

Question 6

what were the findings of harlows monkey experiment?

Answer 6

• all monkeys spent most their time with the cloth mother
• only went to wire mother for food
• went to cloth mother when scared - for comfort

Question 7

what were the conclusions drawn for harlows monkey experiment?

Answer 7

findings suggest that food isn’t the basis of attachment, but the one offering comfort

Question 8

how is ‘confounding variables’ a limitation for harlows monkey study?

Answer 8

• 2 stimuli objects
• varied more than just being cloth covered or not

Question 9

what is the problem with using non-human animals in research?

Answer 9

• human behaviour is down to conscious decisions
• unable to generalise results

Question 10

what ethical issues are there for harlows monkey study?

Answer 10

• created long lasting emotional damage to monkeys, made later relationships more difficult
• stunted development, stress, grew up violent, couldn’t form relationships etc.

Question 11

what was the aim of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 11

investigate mechanisms of imprinting where the youngest follow & form an attachment to the first large moving object they meet

Question 12

what was the procedure of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 12

• split large clutch of goose eggs in 2, 1 with natural mother, 1 in an incubator with Lorenz
• lorenz marked goslings so he could tell the difference between them
• placed them all under upturned box, removed and recoded behaviour

Question 13

what were the findings of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 13

• after birth, naturally hatched goslings followed the mother while incubator goslings followed Lorenz
• bonds proved to be irreversible
• Lorenz noticed that imprinting occurred 4-25 hours after birth

Question 14

what conclusions can be drawn from Lorenz’s study?

Answer 14

imprinting is a form of attachment, exhibited mainly by birds that leave the nest early - close contact kept with first large moving object encountered

Question 15

what is imprinting?

Answer 15

an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother (carer) which takes place during a specific time

Question 16

what is the critical period?

Answer 16

48 hours after birth (according to Lorenz)

Question 17

how is the fact the lorenz’s study has been highly influential a strength of his study?

Answer 17

because it has influenced psychology - the fact that imprinting is irreversible suggests that attachment formation happens within a specific time frame

Question 18

how is the fact that Lorenz’s research led developmental psychologists, a strength?

Answer 18

allowed psychologists to develop well recognised theories of attachment, suggesting the attachment formation takes place during the critical period and is a biological process