animal studies of attachment

• Lorenz imprinting study, procedure (imprinting)

  • Lorenz randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs
  • 1/2 hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment
  • 1/2 hatched in incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
  • Mixed all goslings together to see whom they would follow
  • He also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour
• Lorenz imprinting study, findings/conclusions (imprinting)

  • Incubator group followed Lorenz, control group followed the mother
  • Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place (few hours after hatching)
  • If imprinting did not occur within that time, the chicks did not attach themselves to the mother figure
  • sexual imprinting:
  • Also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable characteristics required in a mate
• strength = support for concept of imprinting (imprinting)

  • Regolin and Vallortigara = exposed chicks to simple shape-combinations that moved
  • When shown a range of moving shapes the chicks followed these in preference to other shapes
  • This suggests that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object
• limitation = generalising from birds to humans (imprinting)

  • The mammalian attachment system is quite different from imprinting in birds
  • Eg = mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their young
  • Means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s idea about imprinting to humans
• extra evaluation = applications to human behaviour (imprinting)

  • The concept of imprinting can explain some human behaviour
  • Eg = ‘baby duck syndrome’ = in which computer uses become attached to their first operating system
  • Means that imprinting is a meaningful process in humans as well as birds
• Harlow Importance of contact comfort study, procedure (CC)

  • Reared 16 rhesus monkeys with 2 wire model ‘mothers’
  • Condition 1 = milk was dispensed by the plain-wire ‘mother’
  • Condition 2 = milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother
  • The monkeys‘ preferences were measured
  • To measure attachment-like behaviour = he observe how the monkeys reacted when placed in frightening situations
  • Eg = adding noisy mechanical teddy bear to environment
  • They also continued to study the monkeys who had been deprived from their ‘real’ mother into adulthood
• Harlow Importance of contact comfort study, findings/conclusions (CC)

  • Baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain-wire mother regardless of which dispensed milk
  • Suggests that contact comfort was of more importance than food when it came to attachment behaviour
  • The monkeys sought comfort from the cloth-covered mother when frightened
  • As adults = the monkeys who had been deprived from their real mothers suffered severe consequences
  • They were more aggressive, less sociable, less skilled in mating than other monkeys
• Strength = Harlow’s research has real-world value (CC)

  • It has helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse and this intervene to prevent it
  • We also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes
  • Means that Harlow’s research has benefitted both animals and humans
• limitation = generalising from monkeys to humans (CC)

  • Monkeys are more similar to humans than Lorenz’s geese and all mammals share some similarities in their attachment systems
  • BUT they are not human and in some ways the human mind and behaviour are much more complex
  • Means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans
• extra evaluation = ethical issues (CC)

  • Harlow’s procedures caused severe long-term distress to his monkey participants
  • BUT = his findings and conclusions have important theoretical and practical applications
  • Suggests that in spite of its benefits, perhaps Harlow‘s research should not have been carried out