Animal Studies of Attachment

• What phenomenon did Lorenz discover in terms of attachment?

  Imprinting
• What was the procedure of Lorenz's research?

  1. He divided goose eggs into 2 groups
  2. One group hatched with the mother in their natural environment whereas the other group hatched in an incubator with Lorenz
• What was the findings from Lorenz's research?

  1. The group that was with Lorenz followed him once they were born
  2. The other group followed the mother everywhere
  3. Even when both groups were mixed together they still followed the people that brought them up
• What is Imprinting?

  A form of attachment where animals (typically birds) form an attachment to the first moving object they see when they are born
• What did Lorenz identify was needed in order for imprinting to occur?

  Critical Period
• What did Lorenz discover about sexual imprinting?

  • If a bird was brought up by a human, they would display courtship behaviour towards humans later in life
  • They would then have a mate preference due to the attachment formed
• Evaluation of Lorenz: Lack of generalisability

  • Lorenz did research on birds however the results may not be applied to human development
  • The critical period for imprinting may be different in humans as well
  • Not that valid because birds and humans may communicate differently to their offspring
  • Humans may be more emotionally attached to offspring
• Evaluation of Lorenz: Questioning his idea of sexual imprinting

  • Some researchers have questioned the permanence of sexual imprinting
  • Research found that chickens sexually imprinted on yellow washing up gloves but this later changed when they grew up and eventually mated with other chicken
  • This suggests sexual imprinting isn't as permanent as it seems and contradicts Lorenz
  • Limited in explaining human attachment
• Evaluation of Lorenz: Real World Application

  1. Farmers use imprinting to ensure the survival of orphan lambs
  2. Farmers take the fleece from a lamb that had died and wrap it around the orphan lamb
  3. The mother of the dead lamb will think the orphan lamb is her child and look after it
  4. This makes sure the orphan lamb doesn't die
• What was Harlow's research aiming to discover in terms of attachment?

  Harlow wanted to discover if food or contact comfort was important for an attachment to occur
• What did Harlow discover is important in forming attachments?

  Contact comfort
• What was the procedure of Harlow's research?

  1. 16 baby monkeys were separated from their mothers and raised with surrogate mothers made of wire or cloth.
  2. The wire mother dispensed milk but the cloth bound mother did not dispense milk as Harlow wanted to test the idea of contact comfort
• What was the findings from Harlow's research?

  • The baby monkeys preferred the mother in cloth and sought comfort when frightened
  • Contact comfort is more important than food
• Evaluation of Harlow: Importance of contact comfort in attachment

  • Harlow's findings have helped in understanding human mother attachment better
  • Attachment doesn't solely occur due to being fed
  • The quality of early relationships is important in social development
  • Contradicts the learning theory
• Evaluation of Harlow: Real World Application

  1. Helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse to prevent it
  2. Also helps with taking better care of captive monkeys and understanding the importance of attachment figures
• Evaluation of Harlow: Ethical Issues

  1. The monkeys Harlow used suffered greatly
  2. The monkeys are very similar to humans so the results can be generalised
  3. Harlow was aware of the issues however his findings were really important to justify it (cost benefit analysis)
• What did Harlow's research find in terms of maternal deprivation?

  • Harlow looked into monkeys that had no maternal figure to see the effects of maternal deprivation
  • These monkeys could not develop normal social behaviour
  • More aggressive and less sociable
  • They neglected their own offspring and in some cases would kill them
• What was the critical period Harlow said a monkey needed for an attachment to form?

  Within 90 days