animal studies of attachment

• imprinting


  an inate readiness to develop a bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development
• Lorenz (1935)


  -divided gosling eggs into 2 groups, one group was left with their natural mother, other group placed in incubator.

  -incubated eggs saw Lorenz as their first living thing]

  -The 2 groups were then put back together and then quickly divided themselves up

  -process of imprinting is restricted to a 'critical period'

  -imprinting is irreversible and long lasting
• Lorenz evaluation

  -Lorenz tested his theories on animals. Some would argue the attachment system is different from animals to humans. Generalisability is questionable as animals may form attachments easier and at anytime unlike the critical period

  
  

  - Lorenz's ideas have been questioned imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour. Guiton et al (1966) found chickens who imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try and mate with them as adults, but later learned to prefer mating with chickens. Imprinting is not as permanent as Lorenz may have believed.
• Harlow (1959)


  -2 wire mothers made with different heads, one wrapped in soft cloth

  -8 infants rhesus monkeys studied for 165 days

  -4 monkeys fed from cloth covered monkey and 4 fed from wire monkey

  -infants don't develop an attachment to the person that feeds them but to the person offering contact comfort
• Harlow evaluation

  confounding variable - One criticism is that the two heads were different, this acted as a confounding variable as it is possible the monkeys preferred the head over the cloth

  
  

  generalising animal studies to humans- Harlow's research is supported by Schaffer and Emerson's findings that infants were not most attached to the person who fed them

  
  

  ethics of harlow's study - The study created long lasting emotional harm. On the one hand the experiment can be justified in terms of the significant effect on our understandings of the processes of attachment