animal studies

• Lorenz 1952

  • Conducted an experiment in which goslings were hatched either with their mother or in an incubator.
  • Once goslings had hatched they proceeded to follow the first moving object that they saw between 13 & 16 hours after hatching (Lorenz)
• Lorenz's study supports the view that having a biological basis for an attachment is adaptive as it promotes survival.

  This would explain why goslings imprint after a matter of minutes due to their increased mobility; human babies are born immobile and therefore there is less call for them to form an attachment straight away, and so, this develops later (8-9 months).
• Harlow 1958

  Harlow conducted research with 8 rhesus monkeys which were caged from infancy with wire mesh food dispensing and cloth-covered surrogate mothers, to investigate which of the two alternatives would have more attachment behaviours directed towards it.

  Harlow measured the amount time that monkeys spent with each surrogate mother and the amount time that they cried for their biological mother.
• Harlow's findings

  Revealed that separated infant rhesus monkeys would show attachment behaviours towards a cloth-covered surrogate mother when frightened, rather than a food-dispensing surrogate mother. Monkeys were willing to explore a room full of novel toys when the cloth-covered monkey was present but displayed phobic responses when only the food-dispensing surrogate was present.
• Furthermore, Harlow reviewed infant monkeys that were reared in a social (non-isolated) environment and observed that these monkeys went on to develop into healthy adults, while the monkeys in isolation with the surrogate mothers all displayed dysfunctional adult behaviour, including:

  1. Being timid
  2. b) Unpredictable with other monkeys
  3. c) They had difficulty with mating
  4. d) The females were inadequate mothers
• Imprinting - believing that the first moving thing seen after birth is the mother, this is irreversible
• Critical period - a time frame for things to happen (or thy wont) Lorenz argued the cut off for imprinting is 32 hours
• strength of animal studies

  Humans and monkeys are similar = Green (1994) states that, on a biological level at least, all mammals (including rhesus monkeys) have the same brain structure as humans; the only differences relates to size and the number of connections.

  Important practical applications = Harlow’s research has profound implications for childcare. Due to the importance of early experiences on long-term development, it is vital that all of children’s needs are catered for; taking care of a child’s physical needs alone is not sufficient.
• weakness of animal studies

  Results cannot be generalised to humans = It is unlikely that observations of Lorenz and Harlow's research reflects the emotional connections and interaction that characterises human attachments.

  Research is unethical = It could be argued that animals have a right not to be researched/ harmed. The pursuit of academic conclusions for human benefits could be seen as detrimental to non-human species.