Animal studies of attachment

• Lorenz's research

  Imprinting

  Procedure- Set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half hatched w/ mother in natural environment. Other half hatched in incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
• Lorenz's research 2

  Imprinting 2

  Findings- Incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas control group followed mother (same when mixed up).

  Phenomenon is called imprinting - birds species that are mobile from birth follow first moving object they see. Identified critical period in which imprinting needs to take place. Can be as brief as a few hours from hatching. If imprinting does not occur within that time, found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.
• Lorenz's research 3

  Sexual imprinting

  Also investigated relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences. Observed that birds that imprinted on human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans. In case study Lorenz (1952) found that a peacock who's first moving object they saw was a giant tortoise, that as an adult would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises. Had undergone sexual imprinting.
• Lorenz's research- evaluation

  Problem w/ generalising from findings on birds to humans. Lorenz interested in imprinting in birds but mammalian attachment system quite diff from that in birds. E.g., mammalian mothers show more attachment to young.
• Lorenz's research - evaluation 2

  Later researcher's have question some of Lorenz's conclusions. E.g., idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour. Guiton et al. (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow gloves would try to mate w/ them as adults, but w/ experience they learned to prefer mating w/ other chickens.
• Harlow's research

  The importance of contact comfort

  Procedure- Harlow (1958) tested idea that a soft object serves some functions of a mother. Reared 16 baby monkeys w/ 2 wire model 'mothers'. In one condition, milk dispensed by cloth-covered mother, in the other, from wired mother.
• Harlow's research 2

  The importance of contact comfort 2

  Findings- baby monkeys cuddled soft object in preference to wire one and sought comfort from cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk. Showed that 'contact comfort' was more important to monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
• Harlow's research 3

  Maternally deprived monkeys as adults

  Harlow also followed monkeys who had been deprived of a 'real' mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect. Found several consequences. More aggressive and less social than other monkeys and were unskilled at mating. As mothers some neglected their young or attacked or killed them.
• Harlow's research 4

  The critical period for normal development

  A mother figure had to be introduced to the infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this time the attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.
• Harlow's research- evaluation

  Has practical value. Helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and so intervene to prevent it (Howe 1998). Findings also important in care of captive monkeys; now understand importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos.
• Harlow's research- evaluation 2

  Ethical issues. Monkeys suffered greatly as a result of Harlow's procedures. Species considered similar enough to humans to generalise findings, which means suffering is presumably quite human-like. Counter-argument is that research was sufficiently important to justify effects.