L4 - Animal Studies of Attachment

Question 1

two key animal studies

Answer 1

• Lorenz
• Harlow (1959)
• interested in formation of early bonds between non-human parents & offspring
• behaviours is common to range of species - can apply to humans

Question 2

Lorenz

Answer 2

• was an ethologist -scientist who studies the behaviour of animals in their natural environment
• observed in 1930’s that most animals will form attachments very soon after birth

Question 3

Imprinting

Answer 3

• means when a new born attaches to first living thing they see at birth
• happens very soon after birth in a specific time frame (critical period)
• if imprinting doesn’t occur within this time period then the baby will probably never form an attachment

Question 4

Lorenz aim

Answer 4

to investigate the mechanisms of imprinting where the youngsters follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object they meet

Question 5

Lorenz method

Answer 5

• split large clutch of greylag goose eggs into two batches
• one hatched by mother naturally, other in an incubator where Lorenz made sure he was the first moving object seen by goslings
• when hatched they were marked and behaviour observed to distinguish
• placed them under an upturned box then removed it and recorded behaviour

Question 6

Lorenz findings

Answer 6

• immediately after birth naturally hatched goslings only followed their mother & the others Lorenz
• when released from upturned box, same thing happened, incubator hatched ones showed no bond with mother
• bonds were irreversible
• imprinting would only occur between 4-25 hrs (critical period)

Question 7

Sexual Imprinting

Answer 7

• Lorenz investigated relationship between imprinting & adult male preferences
• observed that birds that imprinted on a human would later display courtship behaviour
• also in 1952 noted several features of imprinting

Question 8

Lorenz (1952) - several features of imprinting

Answer 8

• process is irreversible
• long-lasting
• described how one of the geese named Martina who imprinted on him used to sleep on his bed every night (may of tried to mate with him)

Question 9

Evaluation of Lorenz’s research

Answer 9

strengths
- research support
- case study
weaknesses
- characteristics of imprinting
- generalising

Question 10

research support

Answer 10

• no. of other studies that show imprinting in other species of birds
• Guiton (1966) demonstrated that leghorn chicks, exposed to yellow rubber gloves for feeding them during their first few weeks, became imprinted on the gloves
• also found that male chickens later tried to mate with the gloves

Question 11

case study

Answer 11

• Lorenz (1952) described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects seen after hatching were giant tortoises
• as an adult, the bird would only direct courtship behaviour to giant tortoises
• he concluded that he undergone sexual imprinting

Question 12

characteristics of imprinting

Answer 12

• there is dispute over the characteristics of imprinting
• original concept suggests that an encounter with an object leads it to being irreversibly stamped in the nervous system
• but now it’s understood it can be a more ‘plastic & forgiving mechanism’ (Hoffman, 1996) & can be reversed
• shown by Guiton (1966) - found that the chicken’s behaviour to the yellow’s gloves could be reversed after spending time with it’s own species

Question 13

generalising

Answer 13

• Lorenz was interested in imprinting birds, so there is a problem of generalising from birds to humans
• seems that the mammalian attachment system is quite different from birds e.g. mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to young than do birds
• mammals may be able to form attachments at any time rather than a specific critical period (has been debated)

Question 14

Harlow (1959)

Answer 14

• used rhesus monkeys to see if attachments are primarily formed through food (Learning theory)
• newborns were separated from mothers & raised in cages
• each cage had a ‘baby blanket’ & monkey’s became distressed when blanked was removed, similar to being separated from mothers - suggests attachment isn’t due to food association

Question 15

Harlow aim

Answer 15

• to test the learning theory by comparing attachment behaviour in baby monkeys given a wire surrogate mother producing milk with those given a soft towelling mother given no milk

Question 16

Harlow procedure

Answer 16

• used 16 babies, 4 in each condition - harsh ‘wire’ mother & soft ‘towelling mother’
  1. Wire mother producing milk, towelling mother producing no milk
  2. Wire mother producing no milk, towelling mother producing milk
  3. Wire mother producing milk
  4. Towelling mother producing milk
• amount of time spent with mother & feeding time was recorded
• monkey’s frightened with a loud noise to test for mother preference during stress
• used a larger cage to test monkeys’ exploration

Question 17

Harlow findings

Answer 17

• preferred contact with towelling mother when given choice, even if it didn’t produce milk
• stretched across to the wire mother to feed while clinging to towelling mother
• monkeys only with wire surrogate had diarrhoea - distress sign
• if frightened by loud noise then clung to towelling mother (if available)
• in larger cage conditions, ones that had towelling mother explored & visited surrogate mother more

Question 18

Harlow’s Conclusion

Answer 18

• rhesus monkeys have innate, unlearned need for contact comfort - suggests that attachment is to do with emotional security more than food
• contact comfort is associated with lower levels of stress & a willingness to explore, indicates emotional security

Question 19

Studies supporting Harlow

Answer 19

Harlow et al. (1965)
Harlow & Suomi (1972)

Question 20

Harlow et al. (1965)

Answer 20

• raised newborn monkeys in total isolation from living beings for 3,6,12,24 months - monkeys showed signs of psychological disturbance - repetitively rocked & hugged own bodies
• when with other monkeys, they were fearful, no social interaction other then attacking them
• harmed themselves - bite arms & legs, pull out hair also had to ability to engage in sexual courtship
• damage degree positively correlated with total time in isolation
• Harlow was keen to see how they would act as parents

Question 21

How did Harlow investigate them as parents

Answer 21

• devised apparatus called ‘rape rack’
• female monkeys raised in isolation would be tied & forcibly mated
• were awful parents - abused & neglected babies
• one chewed off their own baby’s feet, another crushed baby’s head to a pulp
• suggests social interactions are essential for normal social & emotional development to occur

Question 22

Harlow & Suomi (1972)

Answer 22

• raised 4 newborn male monkeys in isolation for 6 months
• then placed each one with a normally raised 3mo old female ‘therapist’ monkey for 2 hrs x3 a week, gradually increasing contact time
• after 12mo their behaviour was almost normal & by 3 years of age they’d totally recovered & were able to live among normally raised monkeys
• suggests effects of total isolation are reversible

Question 23

Evaluation of Harlow’s research

Answer 23

strengths
Theoretical value
Practical value
weaknesses
Ethical issues
Generalisation of animal studies to humans

Question 24

Theoretical value

Answer 24

• Harlow’s findings had a profound effect on psychologists understanding of human-infant attachment
• most importantly Harlow’s research showed attachment doesn’t occur due to being fed by a mother figure - it’s due to contact comfort
• also showed importance of quality of early relationships for later social development - including ability to hold down adult relationships & successfully rear children
• in other words, importance of internal working model

Question 25

Practical value

Answer 25

• research has important practical applications e.g. helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect & abuse & so intervene to prevent it (Howe, 1998)
• findings are also important in the care of captive monkeys in zoos & in breeding programmes in the wild whereby it’s necessary for the need of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys & how not to separate the baby from it’s mother
• can be argued that benefits outweigh costs to the animals in the study

Question 26

Ethical issues

Answer 26

• this study couldn’t be done with humans, also the question of whether it should be done with monkeys
• study created lasting emotional harm as the monkey’s later found it difficult to form relationships with their peers
• Sackett (2002), a student of Harlow’s believes that Harlow’s research was so unjustifiably unethical that the American animal liberation movement was born out of it
• many monkeys in his experiment died

Question 27

Generalisation of animal studies to humans

Answer 27

• ultimate aim of animal studies is to be able to generalise conclusions to human behaviour
• but the studies have issues of generalisation to human behaviour mainly because humans behaviour is governed by conscious decisions & we are not able to attain how animals make their decisions
• but, the fact that animals don’t bind with the person who feeds with them (as shown in Harlow’s study) was also shown in Schaffer & Emerson’s study
• so animal studies can act as a useful pointer in understanding human behaviour but we should still seek confirmation by looking at research with humans to