Paper 1 - Attachment - Animal studies

Question 1

Outline the procedure of Lorenz ?

Answer 1

• Lorenz took a number of gosling eggs and divided them into 2 groups.
• Group 1 - natural mother
• Group 2 - incubator
  -Incubator eggs hatched and first thing they saw was Lorenz - started following him around.
• To test effect of imprinting - Lorenz marked both groups and placed them together (Lorenz and natural mother present).

Question 2

Outline the procedure of Harlow’s study?

Answer 2

• two groups of infant rhesus monkeys studied for 165 days with 2 different mother figures in each group
• group 1 - four monkeys experianced a mother covered in cloth with a milk bottle
• group 2 - four monkeys experianced a wire mother with a milk bottle
• measurements made of the amount of time each infant spent with each of the mothers.
• They also measured the response of the monkeys when they are frightened by a mechanical animal.

Question 3

Outline the findings of Lorenz ?

Answer 3

• Group 1 - followed natural mother
• Group 2 - followed Lorenz (no recognition of natural mother)
• This process of imprinting is restricted to very limited time - critical period.
• If an animal is not exposed to a moving object during his early critical period the animal will not imprint.

Question 4

What does imprinting mean ?

Answer 4

• Imprinting is a process similar to attachment in that it binds a young animal to a caregiver in a special relationship.

Question 5

Outline Harlow’s findings?

Answer 5

• All monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth covered mother (18 hours) regardless of whether is had the milk bottle.

-group 2 only spent a short amount of time getting milk before returning to the cloth mother

• All monkeys when frightened clung to the cloth mother and when playing with certain objects monkeys would often keep one foot on the cloth covered monkey for reassurance

Question 6

Outline Lorenz’s conclusion ?

Answer 6

• Suggest attachment is innate - animal born with evolutionary drive to imprint/form attachment.
• Human critical period (6 months - 2 years) / gosling critical period (12 - 17 hours)

Question 7

Evaluate research into animal studies ?

Answer 7

• :) Research support - Guiton exposed leghorn chicks to rubber glove - supports it being innate.
• :( Animal extrapolation (goslings) - cannot be generalised to human attachment behaviour (more complex).
• :( Harlow’s study is unethical - monkeys suffered greatly (more aggressive/less sociable).
• :) Real life application for Harlow - helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse.

Question 8

Outline Harlow’s conclusion?

Answer 8

• Contact comfort is more important than food in forming attachment
• Monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable - reproduce less often
  Poor parents - some kill monkey babies
  90 days critical period for an attachment to form
• shorter critical period for animals. This is because human brains are more complex and developed and have more complex emotions

Question 9

Evaluate research into animal studies?

Answer 9

• :) Research support - Guiton exposed leghorn chicks to rubber glove - supports it being innate.
• :( Animal extrapolation (goslings) - cannot be generalised to human attachment behaviour (more complex).
• :( Harlow’s study is unethical - monkeys suffered greatly (more aggressive/less sociable).
• :) Real life application for Harlow - helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse.