Att - Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

What did Lorenz find and its evaluation (attachment)

Answer 1

• Imprinting; newly hatched goslings attach to the first moving object they see
• Critical period; imprinting must occur within a few hours after birth

EV:
- Generalisability to humans; it seems that mammal attachment systems is quite different from that in birds

Question 2

What was Harlow’s experiment and evaluation?

Answer 2

Harlow’s monkey’s:
- Harlow aimed to see if baby monkey’s would prefer a source of food or a source of comfort and protection as an attachment figure. Monkey had 2 ‘surrogate’ mothers. One was made of wire mesh and contained a feeding bottle, the other was made of cloth but didn’t contain a feeding bottle
- Infant monkey formed more of an attachment with a figure that provided comfort and protection
- Maternal deprivation; monkeys brought up without a mother were dysfunctional as adults
- Critical period for attachment was the first 90 days or they could not form an attachment

EV:
- Ethical issues: the monkeys suffered greatly; species is considered similar enough to humans for generalisability so suffering was presumably quite human-like
- Showed that attachment does not develop as a result of being fed by a mother figure but as a result of contact comfort which had a huge impact on psychologist’s understanding of mother-infant attachment
- Practical value: helped social workers understand the risk of child abuse and neglect and so intervene to prevent it