Animal studies of attachment

• Konrad Lorenz (1935) study:

  • Took a clutch of goose eggs and divided them into 2 groups.
  • 1 group left with their natural mother whilst the other eggs were placed in an incubator.
  • When the incubator eggs hatched, the first living (moving) thing they saw was Lorenz & they soon started following him around.
• Konrad Lorenz's study findings:

  • The goslings quickly divided themselves up- one group following their natural mother and the other group following Lorenz.
  • Lorenz's brood showed no recognition of their natural mother.
  • The second group subsequently followed Lorenz everywhere & became distressed if they were separated from him.
• • The phenomena found from Lorenz's study is referred to as imprinting.
  • There's a critical period for imprinting , ie a limited window in which it can happen- 13-17 hours after hatching.
  • After 32 hours, imprinting is unlikely to occur.
  • Due to the critical period, it is thought that the ability to imprint is innate.
  • Imprinting is irreversible & acts as a template for later relationships.
• Evaluation of Lorenz's study- strength:

  • High reliability of results- there have been a number of studies demonstrating imprinting in animals.
  • Guiton (1966) even found that hens would imprint to yellow rubber gloves if they were the first moving thing the chicks saw.
  • We are more likely to draw firm conclusions from reliable results.
• Evaluation of Lorenz's study- weakness:

  • The results are not applicable to humans.
  • Non-human animals such as geese are very different to humans and we cannot assume to generalise Lorenz's results to humans.
  • They may be a useful indicator but they cannot be ethically tested on humans so we cannot know for sure.
  • This questions the validity of Lorenz's work.
• Harry Harlow 1959 study:

  • 8 monkeys were separated from their mothers immediately after birth & were placed in cages with access to 2 surrogate mothers- one being made of wire and one being covered in soft terry towelling cloth.
  • 4 of the monkeys could get milk from the wire mother & 4 from the cloth mother.
  • The animals were studied for 165 days.
• Harry Harlow study findings:

  • Both groups of 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.
• Harry Harlow study conclusions: attachment is based on contact- comfort not feeding. The lack of early contact comfort is socially & emotionally damaging.
• Harlow's study Evaluation- weakness:

  • There are major ethical issues/ concerns. Study could not have been done on humans and so argued that it shouldn't have been done on monkeys due to the lasting emotional & social damage that was caused.
  • We should not use the results from unethical studies. However, Harlow's study could be justified in terms of the significant effect it has had on our understanding of human attachment and changes to child rearing practices.
• Harlow's study Evaluation- weakness:

  • The use of non-human animals means that the results are not valid. Humans are more complex in lots of ways, eg we are capable of conscious thought.
  • Therefore, must be cautious in generalising results to humans.
  • The results from Harlow's study may provide useful indicators to human behaviour, but these need to be backed up with human research.