L4: Animal studies of attachment

• Lorenz (1952) - imprinting

  procedure: randomly divided clutch of goose eggs; half hatched in natural env. with mother, other half hatched in incubator (first saw Lorenz)

  findings: incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere (control followed mother goose)
• Imprinting is when bird species which are mobile from birth (e.g., geese; ducks) attach to and follow the first moving object they see.
• Lorenz's critical period

  • critical period when imprinting neds to take place
  • can be as brief as a few hrs after hatching (birth)

  If imprinting doesn't occur in this period: chicks didn't attach themselves to a mother fig.
• sexual imprinting

  • Lorenz investigated relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences

  Lorenz (1952) case study

  • peacock reared in zoo reptile house -> first large moving obj. they saw after hatching was giant tortoise
  • adult -> peacock directed courtship towards giant tortoises

  The peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.
• Harlow (1958): contact comfort

  procedure: 16 baby rhesus monkeys reared with two wire 'mothers'

  1. plain-wire
  2. cloth-covered

  In both conditions the wire mothers dispensed milk.

  findings: rhesus monkeys cuddled cloth mother when frightened regardless which one dispensed milk

  This shows contact comfort was more important to the monkeys than food in terms of attachment behaviour
• maternally deprived monkeys as adults

  • followed rhesus monkeys into adulthood: investigate whether this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect

  findings:

  • reared with plain-wire: most dysfunctional

  Even those reared with a cloth mother didn't develop normal social behaviour.

  • more aggressive
  • less sociable
  • bred less than normal monkeys; unskilled at mating

  When they became mothers:

  • neglected their young
  • others attacked their children - sometimes killing
• Harlow's critical period

  • mother fig. had to be intro. to rhesus monkey within 90 days for attachment to form
  • after: attachment impossible; damage done by deprivation is irreversible
• strength (Lorenz): research support

  point: support for concept of imprinting

  evidence: Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) -> chicks exposed to shape combinations which moved (e.g., triangle with rectangle in front)

  -> range shown to chicks: followed original most closely

  explain: this is a strength b/c it supports the view that young animals are born with mechanism to imprint on first moving object they see (as Lorenz proposed).

  -> + credibility to Lorenz's research

  link: strength - research support b/c increased validity
• limitation (Lorenz): generalisability to humans

  point: ability to generalise findings and conclusions to human attachment

  evidence: mammalian attachment system very different and more complex than birds

  -> e.g., attachment two-way process in mammals; not just young who attach to mothers, mothers have emotional attachment to their young

  explain: limitation b/c it means that Lorenz's research has little explanatory power for human attachment and so it isn't appropriate to generalise the findings to humans.

  link: limitation - generalisability b/c low credibility
• strength (Harlow): real-world application

  point: practical value in social care

  evidence: Howe (1998) - Harlow's research helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect + abuse -> can intervene to prevent it

  -> also helped care of captive monkeys; understand importance of proper attachment figs. (baby monkeys in zoos; breeding programs in wild)

  explain: strength b/c it shows how Harlow's research has influenced society.

  link: strength - real world application b/c has +ve implications for future + economy
• limitation: ethical issues

  point: breached protection from harm

  evidence: monkeys taken from natural mothers soon after birth; distress from being in cages/social isolation

  explain: limitation b/c Rhesus monkeys considered similar enough to humans -> can generalise findings to humans -> suffering considered human-like

  link: limitation - ethical issues with key study of attachment
• counter-argument (Harlow - ethical issues)

  • cost-benefit analysis of research would've been taken place
  • although monkeys were distressed: Harlow's research valuable to scientific community
  • findings informed child-rearing practices across the world