Animal studies of attatchment Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is imprinting
innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/ hatching
- If it doesn’t happen within this time, it probably will not happen. It occurs even without feeding.
What is contact comfort
infant’s need for physical closeness and touching
- believed to be the foundation for attachment
What was the aim of Lorenz’s study
to investigate if imprinting is innate
What was the method of Lorenz’s study
Lorenz carried out a field experiment where he took a large clutch of goose
eggs that were divided randomly.
Condition 1: Half were hatched with the mother present, in their natural environment.
Condition 2: Other half were hatched in an incubator with Lorenz present.
The behaviour of all the hatched eggs (goslings) was recorded. When the geese hatched Lorenz imitated a mother duck’s
quacking sounds.
To ensure imprinting had occurred Lorenz put all the goslings together under an upturned box and allowed them to mix.
What were the results of Loren’s study
When the box was removed, the two groups separated to go to their respective ‘mothers’
- half to the goose, and half to Lorenz.
Suggested which ‘mother’ they had imprinted on.
Geese followed the first moving
object they saw, during a 12–17-hour critical period after hatching.
What was the conclusion of Lorenz’s study
Imprinting is not active immediately after hatching, although there seems to be a critical period during which imprinting can occur.
Imprinting has consequences both for short term survival and in the longer term forming
internal templates for later relationships. Imprinting occurs without any feeding
If no attachment has developed within 32 hours, it’s unlikely any attachment will ever develop.
What was the aim of Harlow’s study
investigate the importance of contact comfort in understanding attachment behaviours
What was the method of Harlow’s study
Baby Rhesus monkeys were removed from their real mother
soon after birth and kept in total isolation. 16 babies were
- A cage containing a wire mother producing milk and a
towelling mother producing no milk. - A cage containing a wire mother producing no milk and a towelling mother producing milk.
- A cage containing a wire mother producing milk.
- A cage containing a towelling mother producing milk.
Were studied for 165 days, with all behaviour measured and recorded, including the time spent with each mother. There were also fear conditions, where monkeys were presented with scary mechanical animals to observe whether they would use their respective mothers as a safe base.
What were the results of Harlow’s study
All monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother even if she had no milk.
The infant would only go to the wire mother when hungry. Once fed it would return to the cloth mother for most of the day.
If a frightening object was placed in the cage the infant took refuge with the cloth mother; its ‘safe base’. This surrogate was more effective in decreasing the youngsters fear as the infant would explore more when the cloth mother was present
What was the conclusion of Harlow’s study
Findings suggest that infants do not develop an attachment to the person that feeds them, but to the person offering contact comfort.
What were the long lasting effects of Harlow’s monkeys
Motherless monkeys, even those with contact comfort, developed abnormally.
They were socially abnormal – they froze or fled when approached by other monkeys.
They were also sexually abmormal – they did not show normal mating behaviour and did not cradle their own babies.
What are strengths of Animal studies of attachment
High control (Lorenz and Harlow)
Practical applications (Harlow)
What are limitations of Animal studies of attachment
Ethics
Difficulty extrapolating
Contradicted
Evaluate practical applications as a strength of Animal studies of attachment
P: Harlow’s findings have helped social workers better understand the importance of early attachment to later development.
E: Awareness of the possible long-term risks resulting from infant neglect means that social workers are better placed to make suitable interventions in cases of human infant neglect as they know the long-term detrimental impact of it.
E: Strength because, human infants have benefitted from the research and are less likely to develop abnormally since the consistent presence of an early attachment figure has become widely accepted and
acted upon by social services.
Evaluate ethical issues as a limitation of Animal studies of attachment
P: Both Harlow’s and Lorenz’s research was unethical.
E: Most of the monkeys used in Harlow’s studies were permanently damaged; were subjected to physical harm; and many were killed.
As far as Lorenz is concerned, the geese which imprinted on him can be argued to have been denied the opportunity to acquire many of the skills they would have learnt from their real mother (although Lorenz did his best to teach them to survive and they would still come to him when he called for them many years later).
E: In each case, the animals were damaged because of their use in research. This would not be allowed to occur today.
Further E: However, this unethical use of animals does not render the findings invalid. It could be argued that the findings of this research (particularly that of Harlow) are so important as to justify the techniques he used.
Evaluate difficult to extrapolate as a limitation of Animal studies of attachment
P: Used animals to investigate attachment behaviours.
E: Lorenz’s study investigated imprinting in geese and Harlow’s study investigated contact comfort in rhesus monkeys
E: Limitation because we might not be able to generalise the results to humans as they might not behave the same as geese or monkeys, due to differences in the complexity of intelligence and communication in humans. These studies therefore cannot help us to understand if humans need contact comfort in the same way as monkeys or if imprinting is instinctive in humans.
Evaluate Contradiction as a limitation of Animal studies of attachment
P: Both studies findings are contradicted by learning theory
E: Lorenz found that goslings made attachments through imprinting and Harlow found that contact comforted is important for attachment.
Learning theory contradicts these findings, claiming instead that attachment is formed through classical and operant conditioning on the basis of food and not as a consequence of contact comfort or imprinting.
E: This is a limitation because the conclusions drawn by Harlow and Lorenz may not apply to humans
