A03 Animal studies of attachment

• Can Harlow's findings apply to humans?

  Monkeys are more similar to humans than birds but they are still not human. Psychologists disagree on the extent studies of non-human primates can be generalised to humans
• Ethical issues

  Severe criticism of ethical issues. Monkeys suffered greatly and because monkeys are so similar to humans, their suffering was presumably human-like. Harlow knew this and even called the wire mothers 'iron maidens' after a medieval torture device. But, a counter-argument is that Harlow's research is sufficiently important to justify
• Practical value

  Helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and thus, intervene to prevent this according to Howe. He also understood the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes
• Importance of quality of early relationships

  Showed importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development- ability to hold down adult relationships and rear kids
• Theoretical value

  Harlow's research led to profound effect on psychologist's understanding of attachment. Harlow showed attachment develops because of being fed by mother but a result of contact comfort
• Some of Lorenz's observations have been questioned

  Researchers questioned Lorenz's research like Guiton et al who investigated chickens imprinting on yellow washing up gloves and they even tried to mate with them. However, they eventually learned to mate with other chickens so impact on imprinting on mating behaviour is not so permanent as Lorenz thought
• Generalisability to humans

  There is a problem generalising findings on birds. Mammalian attachment system is quite different from birds as mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to young than birds. Thus, it is not appropriate to generalise