Animal Studies of Attachment

• Imprinting


  The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life
• Lorenz's research procedure


  - He divided a group of goose eggs.

  - Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment.

  - The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
• Lorenz's research findings


  Newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object they see (imprinting)

  
• Critical period (Lorenz)


  Makes imprinting possible & signifies a special time when a behavior must be learned, or the behavior won't be learned at all.
• Sexual imprinting (Lorenz)


  - Found a correlation between imprinting and adult mate preferences.

  - Animals imprinting on humans would later display attraction towards humans.
• Contact comfort


  Stimulation and reassurance derived from the physical touch of a caregiver
• Harlow's research procedure


  - Baby monkeys given cloth-covered or plain-wire 'mother' with feeding bottle attached.

  
• Harlow's research findings


  - Monkeys clung to cloth surrogate rather than wire one, regardless of which dispensed milk.

  
• Maternal deprivation (Harlow)


  - Investigated if maternal deprivation is permanent.

  - Monkeys with wire mothers only = most dysfunctional.

  - Even those with cloth didn't develop normal social behaviour.

  - More aggressive / less sociable

  - Some deprived/ attacked own children

  
• The critical period for normal development

  - Like Lorenz, Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for this behaviour.

  - A mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form.

  - After this time attachment was impossible & the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.
• Strength of Lorenz's research


  Research support

  - Regolin and Valloritgara (1995) exposed chicks to compound shapes that move.

  - A range of shape combinations were moved in front of them, and they followed the original most closely.

  
  

  Highly influential

  - Bowlby argued that there is a similar critical period for humans, 6 to 30 months.

  - And if attachment doesn't form in that time, it will result in permanent social problems.

  - HOWEVER, later research on orphans suggests this period is "sensitive", not critical, but later care can help with recovery.

  
  

  Real-world value

  - 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.
• Limitation of Lorenz's research

  Generalizability to humans

  - The mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in humans.

  - Not appropriate to generalize Lorenz's ideas to humans.

  
  

  Unethical

  - The suffering was real, and public knowledge of these studies has harmed psychology's reputation.

  - HOWEVER, some psychologists argue that the long-term benefits to millions of human infants resulting from Harlow's research justify the studies when considering a cost-benefit analysis.
• Strength of Harlow's research

  Real-world value

  - 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.
• Limitation of Harlow's research

  Generalisability to humans

  - The human brain and human behaviour is more complex than monkeys.

  - Not appropriate to generalise Harlow's findings to humans.