Animal Studies

• Harlow

  Procedure: Placed 8 solitary rhesus monkeys in a cage, separated from birth and raised in isolation with two ‘surrogate’ mothers; one is made of wire and the other is made of cloth. For half the feeding tube was with the wire and for the other half it was with the cloth mother. They measured the amount of time they spent clinging to each mother and which one they went to when they were scared.
• Harlow

  Found: irrelevant of which surrogate provided milk they spent most of their time with the cloth ‘mother’. The monkeys showed psychological problems such as rocking, aggression, abnormal sexual behaviour, neglected their own babies later in life. Conclusion: Attachment is for comfort, not food and maternal deprivation has devastating consequences.
• Lorenz

  Procedure: Took a clutch of gosling eggs and randomly divided them into two groups. One was left with the mother and the other put in an incubator. To check they had imprinted, he put markers on them (to show which group) and them all in a container then they were released. He measured whether goslings followed the mother or Lorenz.
• Lorenz

  Found: They quickly separated and those from the mother followed her and the incubator goslings followed him. They imprinted on the 1st moving object they saw, even before they had been fed. Conclusion: Attachment is innate and not to do with food. Imprinting was strongest between 13 and 16 hours after this the effects of imprinting reduced - suggesting a critical period.
• Harlow Evaluation

  Used monkeys as it is more ethical than using humans – has led to a greater understanding of love and comfort in attachment. However, the monkeys showed abnormal behaviour which raises ethical questions. Humans are more complex in terms of their cognitions and attachment in humans involves more sensitive bonding - must be cautious when we extrapolate research into attachment in monkeys to humans.
• Lorenz Evaluation

  Guiton supports imprinting as it was found that leghorn chickens attached to a rubber glove. Humans attachment is more complex than attachment in birds. For example, human mothers show more emotional attachment in their young than bird mothers do. Therefore we must be cautious when we extrapolate research into attachment in geese to humans. RWA – used to help birds migrate and orphan lambs to attach to a surrogate mother.