AQA PSYCHOLOGY - ANIMAL STUDIES OF ATTACHMENT

• key study: Lorenz (1935) procedure =

  - took gosling eggs and divided them into groups- one group left with their mother and one group hatched with Lorenz- the first living thing they saw when they hatched in the incubator was Lorenz and so would follow him around - to test the effect of imprinting Lorenz marked the two groups and placed them together
• key study: Lorenz (1935) findings =

  the goslings divided and the group who hatched with Lorenz followed him and the other with their mother this process noted Lorenz of imprinting is restricted to a very definite period of the young animals life - critical period
• key study: Lorenz (1935) conclusion =

  imprinting is a form of attachment exhibited by mainly birds as they are mobile from birth he noted imprinting is irreversible and long lasting as well as an effect on mating preferences - sexual imprinting
• imprinting =


  an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a critical period in development
• key study: Lorenz - evaluation: weakness - cannot be generalised to humans


  its difficult to generalise these findings as we aren't mobile from birth like birds so they can show imprinting whereas mammals attach on an emotional basis and so attachments are less easy in infancy
• key study: Lorenz - evaluation: weakness - imprinting being irreversible more specifically having a permanent effect on mating preference


  Guiton et al (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow gloves tried to mate with them as adults but they can learn that their mates are their own species - so its not a permanent effect
• key study: Harlow (1959) - procedure

  Harlow created two wire mothers each with different heads - one mother wrapped with a cloth the other had food he had 16 rhesus monkeys
• key study: Harlow (1959) - what did the cloth monkey represent

  comfort and security - evolutionary theory
• key study: Harlow (1959) - what did the food monkey represent

  operant conditioning - learning through consequences
• rhesus monkeys =

  raised in isolation not in the wild
• key study: Harlow (1959) findings -

  the baby monkeys cuddled the cloth mother for around 17-18hrs in preference to the wire mother especially when frightened they would be on the wire mother for about 1hr all together
• key study: Harlow (1959) conclusion -


  contact comfort is more important to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour
• key study: Harlow - other information

  Harlow continued as they grew up he found that they developed abnormally they froze or fled when approached by other monkeys they didn't show normal mating behaviour or cuddle their own babies - suffered from maternal deprivation
• key study: Harlow - evaluation: weakness - not ethical


  his experiment was unnecessarily cruel and of limited value in attempting to understand the effects of deprivation on human infants the monkeys suffered from emotional harm from being held in isolation
• key study: Harlow - evaluation: weakness - cannot generalise


  this experiment isn't a full accurate result of human behaviour
• key study: Harlow - evaluation: weakness - monkeys had different heads


  the experiment isn't credible because of the internal validity the wire had a less monkey face then the other one so did this mean the monkey was scared of this one and thought the cloth was an actual monkey so thats why it spent more time with that one
• key study: Harlow - evaluation: strength - real life application

  his results showed the negative effects isolation can have on animals and not growing up with their own species and mother can help in zoos to ensure they provide a suitable environment for animals so they develop normally used to advise parents the importance of attachment to their children - contact comfort suggested by Harlow