Animal studies of attachment

• Lorenz's research

  First observed imprinting when he was a child and a neighbour have him a newly hatched duckling that then followed him around.

  • classic experiment in which he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs. Half the eggs were hatched with mother goose in natural environment. Other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
• Lorenz findings

  -The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group, hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her.

  -When the groups were mixed the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz.

  • imprinting= bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see.
  • Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place.
  • if imprinting doesn't occur within the time Lorenz found that the chicks didn't attach to a mother figure
• Sexual imprinting

  Lorenz investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences.

  • he observed that birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans.
  • case study= described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the 1st moving object the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises. -As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises. So concluded the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.
• Evaluation- research support for Lorenz

  -Regolin and Vallortigara supports Lorenz's idea of imprinting.

  -Chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved. A range of shape combinations were then moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely.

  • supports view that young animals born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical period of development.
• Evaluation- generalisability to humans- Lorenz

  The mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds. eg: in mammals attachment is a two way process, mothers also show an emotional attachment to their young.

  • not appropriate to generalise Lorenz's ideas to humans.
• Harlow's research

  -tested idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother.

  -places baby monkeys in a cage with a wire mother who dispensed milk and another wire monkey who was covered in a cloth.

  • baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which mother dispensed milk.
  • showed that contact comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food.
• maternally deprived monkeys as adults

  Followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a real mother into adulthood to see if early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect.

  • the monkeys with only plain-wired mothers were most dysfunctional.
  • the deprived monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys, unskilled at mating. When they became mothers some neglected their young and other attacked their children, even killing them in some cases.
• critical period- Harlow

  a mother figure had to be introduced to a young monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation was irreversible.
• Evaluation- real world value, Harlow

  It has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes.

  • now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild.
  • so research is also practical.
• Evaluation- generalisability to humans, Harlow

  Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz's birds, and all mammals share some common attachment behaviour.

  • however the human brain and behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys.
• ethical issues

  Harlow's research caused severe and long term distress to the monkeys.