Animal studies of Attachment

Question 1

Harlow’s aim

Answer 1

To examine the extent to which contact comfort and food influences attachment behaviour in baby rhesus monkeys

Question 2

Harlow’s procedure

Answer 2

Harlow(1958) recorded 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model mothers. In condition 1, milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother and in condition 2, milk was dispensed by the cloth covered mother

Question 3

Harlow’s findings

Answer 3

In both conditions the baby monkeys cuddled the cloth covered mother and sought comfort from it when scared, regardless of which dispenser milk. This showed that contact comfort was more important to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour

Question 4

How were the maternally deprived monkeys as adults?

Answer 4

They were more dysfunctional and didn’t develop normal social behaviour. For eg, they were more aggressive, less sociable bred less and attacked their young

Question 5

Lorenz’s aim

Answer 5

To examine imprinting in non human animals

Question 6

Lorenz’s procedure

Answer 6

He randomly divided greylag goose eggs into two batches. Half were hatched with the mother and the others were hatched in an incubator, meaning Lorenz was the first large moving object they saw. The behaviour towards either the mother or Lorenz was recorded. After, he marked the geese and placed them under a box, where their behaviour was recorded again.

Question 7

Lorenz’s findings

Answer 7

Straight after birth, naturally hatched goslings filled the mother goose, whereas the incubated ones followed Lorenz, showing no attachment to their bio mum. The imprinting occured within a critical period of 4-25 hours after hatching