Animal Studies of Attachment

Question 1

explain the experiment lorenz did to investigate imprinting

Answer 1

• he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs into two batches
• one group hatched naturally with their mother
• the other group hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
• the incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the natural group followed their mother
• these bonds proved to be irreversible

Question 2

what is imprinting

Answer 2

where bird species that are mobile from birth attach and follow the first moving object they see

Question 3

explain the study which supports the idea of sexual imprinting

Answer 3

lorenz

• peacock had been reared in a reptile house of a zoo
• first moving objects they saw were tortoises
• as an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards the tortoises

Question 4

what animal did harlow study

Answer 4

rhesus monkeys

Question 5

explain the procedure of harlows research into the importance of contact comfort

Answer 5

• he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
• the monkeys were put in 1 of 2 conditions
• conditions resulted in:
  1. cage containing a wire mother producing milk and a towelling mother producing no milk
  2. cage containing wire mother producing no milk and towelling mother producing milk
• the amount of time speant with each mother, feeding time and mother preference during stress (loud noise) was recorded

Question 6

what were harlows findings

Answer 6

• the monkeys cuddled the cloth mokey in preference to the plain wired monkey when frightened regardless of which mother dispensed milk
• this showed that contact comfort was more important than food

Question 7

what did harlow say the critical period was

Answer 7

90 days

Question 8

explain the research harlow did into how being maternally deprived affected monkeys as adults

Answer 8

• monkeys who were only with a wire mother had diarrhoea, a sign of stress
• even those who had a cloth mother did not develop normal social behaviour. They were more aggressive and less sociable

Question 9

how does harlows findings challenge the learning theory of attachment

Answer 9

contact comfort was seen to be more important than food but the learning theory suggests food is the primary driver

Question 10

strength

evaluate animal studies

Answer 10

• P - real world application
• Eg - harlows research into the effects of maternal deprivation on monkeys has been applied to social work and childcare
• Ex - his findings helped highlight the importance of emotional care in early development, influencing policies like the introduction of key workers
• L - harlows work has had a positive impact beyond psychology, improving social care practices
• H - not all children who lack early contact comfort go on to develop issues, suggeting other factors may affect it

Question 11

limitation

evaluate animal studies

Answer 11

• P - cant generalise to humans
• Eg - lorenz used geese and harlow used monkeys
• Ex - human attachment is more complex and influences by other factors such as language and emotion
• L - conclusions from the research may not reflect how atathcment works in human infants
• H - the studies still provide a useful foundation for understanding the basic biological process