Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
Describe Lorenz’s procedure
randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs
half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment
other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
Describe Lorenz’s findings
incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group hatched in the presence of the mother, followed her
identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place
(can be as brief as few hours after hatching)
If imprinting does not occur within this period, Lorenz found chicks didnt attach themselves to mother figure
What is imprinting?
where bird species that are mobile from bith attach and follow the first moving object they see
How did Lorenz investigate sexual imprinting?
Described a peacock that had been reared in a reptile house- first moving object they saw was a tortoise
as an adult the tortoise only directed courtship towards tortoises
therefore Lorenz concluded the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting
Strengths of Lorenz’s study
+ research support
stufy by Regolin and Vallortigara supports imprinting
chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved-they followed the original most closely
this supports the idea that animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object in the critical period
Weakness of Lorenz’s study
-
not generalisable
the mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds
mammals attach in a two-way process
this means that it is probably not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas to humans
Describe Harlow’s procedure
tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother
reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model mothers
In one condition, milk was dispensed by the plain-wire mother
In second condition, cloth covered mother dispensed it
Describe Harlow’s findings
The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother preference to the plain one
monkeys sought comfort from cloth one when frightened by noisy mechanical teddy bear
showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance then food when it came to attachment behaviour
What were Harlow’s findings into maternally deprived monkeys later in life?
Monkeys reared with plain wire mothers only were the most dysfunctional
Deprived monkeys were less sociable, and more aggressive
Some were unskilled in mating
when they became mothers themselves, the monkeys neglected their children and often attacked, sometimes even killed them
What did Harlow conlcude
critical period: 90 days
after this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible
Strengths of Harlow’s study
+ this study is important in real-world applications
has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development- this allows for intervention and prevention of poor outcomes
Weaknesses of Harlow’s study
-
the findings from this study are not generalisable
the human brain and human behaviour is still more complex then that of a monkeys
