Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

Imprinting

Answer 1

An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother who takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/hatching. If it doesn’t happen at this time it probably won’t happen.

Question 2

What happened when monkeys were frightened

AO1

Answer 2

When frightened, all monkeys clung to the cloth-covered mother, and when playing with new objects the monkeys often kept one foot on the cloth covered mother for reassurance.

Suggests that monkey

Question 3

Lorenz (1935)

Answer 3

An ethologist studying animal behaviour under relatively natural conditions.

Question 4

Lorenz (1935) - Animal studies (Procedure)

Answer 4

Took a clutch of gosling eggs and divided them into two groups. One group was left with their natural mother while the other eggs were placed in an incubator. When the incubator eggs hatched the first living thing they saw was Lorenzo and they soon started following him.

Question 5

Lorenz (1935) - Animal studies (Findings)

Answer 5

The goslings quickly divided themeselves up, one following their natural mother and the other following Lorenzo. Lorenzo’s brood shows no recongition of their natural mother.

Question 6

Lorenz (1952) - Animal studies (Long-lasting effects)

Answer 6

Noted several features of imprinting, ege that the process is irreversibe and long lasting. He describe how one of these geese who imprinted on him, called martina used to sleep on his bed every night..

Question 7

Lorenz (1952) - Animal studies (Long-lasting effects) Sexual imprinting

Answer 7

He also noted that this early imprinting had an effect on later mate preferences, calledd sexual imprinting. Animals (Especially birds) will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon whic they were imprinted.

Question 8

Harlow (1959)

Answer 8

Conducted landmark research on attachment. Named his report ‘The origins of love and sought’ to demonstartate that mother love was not based on the feeding bond between mother and infant as predicted by learning theory.

Question 9

Harlow (1959) Animal studies (Procedure)

AO1

Answer 9

Harlow creared two wire mothers each with a different ‘head’. One wire mother additonally was wrapped in soft cloth. 8 infant rehsus monkey were studied for a period of 165 days. For 4 monkeys the milk bottle was on the cloth-covered mother and on the plain wire’mother’ for the other 4 monkeys.

Question 10

Harlow (1959) Animal studies (Findings)
(AO1)
Cloth-covered mother

Answer 10

• All 8 monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth-covered mother whether or not this mother had a feeding bottle.
• Those monkeys who fed from the wire mother ony spent a short amount of time getting milk then returned to the cloth-covered mother.
• When frightened, all monkeys clung to the cloth-covered mother, and when playing with new objects the monkeys often kept one foot on the cloth covered mother for reassurance. Findings suggest that infants fo not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering the comfort.

Question 11

Harlow (1959) Animal studies (Long-lasting effects)

AO1

Answer 11

Later on the rhesus monkeys noted many consequences of their early attachment experiences and the motherless monkeys were sociallt abnormally even when they had contact comfort.

Question 12

Harlow (1959) Animal studies (Findings)
(AO1)
Wired mother

Answer 12

Those monkeys who fed from the wire mother ony spent a short amount of time getting milk then returned to the cloth-covered mother.

Question 13

What do findings of Harlow’s study suggest

Answer 13

Infants do not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but the person offering contact comfort

Question 14

Describe and evaluate animal studies of attachment [16]

AO3

Answer 14

Discuss Lorenzo & Harlow study
Implications of Animal Studies of Attachment
Evaluating Animal Studies of Attachment
Important practical application

Question 15

Describe and evaluate animal studies of attachment [16]
(AO3)
Humans and monkeys are similar
Green (1994)

Answer 15

States that, on a biological level at least, all mammals (including rhesus monkeys) have the same brain structure as humans; the only differences relates to size and the number of connections.

Question 16

Describe and evaluate animal studies of attachment [16]
(AO3)
Weaknesses

Results cannot be generalised to humans

Answer 16

• humans differ in important way- behaviour is governed by conscious decisons.
• however many studioes have shown observants made of animal attachment are mirrored in studies of humans
• Eg. Harlow’s research is supported by Schaffer and Emerson’s findings that infants were most attached to the person who fed them.
• Furtherfore Green 1994 suggests that mammals have the same brain structure as humans.

Question 17

Describe and evaluate animal studies of attachment [16]
(AO3)
Weaknesses

Research is unethical

Answer 17

Research is unethical
- The use of animals in research can be questioned on ethical grounds. It could be argued that animals have a right not to be researched/ harmed.
- The study created long lasting emotional harm as the monkeys later found it difficult to form relationships with their peers
- However, this could be justified due to the effect it had on our understanding of the processes of attachment.

Question 18

ANIMAL STUDIES OF ATTACHMENT

Answer 18

• Lorenz 1935 (gosling eggs)
• Harlow 1959 (rhesus monkeys)

Question 19

Lorenz Research AO3

2

Answer 19

Research support imprinting

Criticisms of imprinting

Question 20

Harlow’s Research AO3

Answer 20

Confound variable
Generalising animal studies to human behaviour
Ethics of Harlow’s study

Question 21

Research to support imprinting

Guiton (1996)

Answer 21

P: A strength of Lorenz’s concept of imprinting has been replicated in studies with other bird species.

E: Guiton (1996) demonstrated that leghorn chicks, exposed to yellow rubber gloves while being fed durin gthe first few weeks, became imprinted on the gloves.

E: This supports the view that young animals are not born with predispostion to imprint on a specfic type of object but probably on a moving thing that is present during the critical window of development.

L: Therefore Guiton’s findings provide clear support for Lorenz’s original research and conclusions

Question 22

Critisms of imprinting

AO3

Answer 22

P: There is some dispute over than characteristics of imprinting

E: Hoffman (1966) Found that imprinting is now a ‘plastic’ and more fogiving mechanism. E.g Guiton (1966) found that he could reverse the imprinting in chickens that initally tried to mate with the rubber gloves. He later found after spending time with their own species, they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with other chickens.

E: This suggests that imprinting may not, after all be very different from any other kind of learning. Lerning can also take place rapidly with very little conscious effort and is fairly reversible.

Question 23

Confounding variables in Harlow’s study

AO3

PEE

Answer 23

P: One critiscim that has been made of Harlow’s study is that the two wire surrogates varied in more ways than just being cloth-covered or not.

E: The two heads were different which acted as a confounded variable as it varied systematically with the IV (Mother being cloth-cover or not) It is likely that the infant monkey preffered one mother to the other bc they found one head more attractive.

E: This suggests that Harlow’s study lacked internal validty as differences between the two monkey surrogates were not suffienctly controlled.

Question 24

Generalising animal studies to human behaviour

PEE

Answer 24

P: Despite differences between humans and animals, Harlow’s findings about attachment have been mirrored in humans.

E: Harlow’s findings that monkeys were not most attached to the wire ‘mother’ that provided food has also been demonstrated in the work of Schaffer and Emerson, which empasied the importance of sensitve responding in the development of attachments

E: This shows that, although animal studies such as Harlow’s provide useful pointers to explaining human behaviour, we should ask confirmation through research with humans.

Question 25

Ethics of Harlow’s study
AO3+

PEE

Answer 25

P: Eventhough the study was not done on humans, there are still some questions on whether the study should be done on animals

E: This is because the study caused long lasting harm on the monkeys later found it difficult to form relationships with their peers. The experiment could be justified in terms of significant effects it has had on our understanding of the processes of attachment, and the research derived from this study has been used to offfer better care of human and infants

E: Therefore it could be argued that the benefits outweight the costs to the animals involved in the study. Such criticisms do not challenge the findings of the research but are important in monitoring what counts as good science.