– Animal studies are studies carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons
– They have looked at the formation of early bonds between non-human parents and their offspring
– Attachment like behaviour is common in many animals and can help us understand human attachment
LORENZ’S RESEARCH (1935)
– Lorenz was an ethologists, studying animal behaviour under natural conditions – Though his research did include some manipulation
IMPRINTING
– An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother
– This takes place during a specific time in development, during the first few hours of birth
– If this doesn’t happen at this time it probably won’t happen at all
PROCEDURE
– Lorenz set up an experiment when he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs into two groups
– 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.
– To test the effect of imprinting, a couple of days after they hatched, Lorenz marked the two groups to distinguish them and placed them together, while both Lorenz and the mother were together
FINDINGS
– He found that the incubator group followed him everywhere because they had imprinted on him
– Whereas, the control group followed their mother.
– When the two groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz and showed no recognition of their natural mother
CONCLUSIONS
– He called the bond imprinting and observed that there was a critical period that needed to take place.
– Lorenz did note that impriniting to humans did not occur in some animals
SEXUAL IMPRINTING – Long Lasting Effects
– Lorenz also 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 and this is called sexual imprinting.
EVALUATION OF LORENZ
STRENGTH
Research Support
– Guiton demonstrated that leghorn chicks, exposed to yellow rubber gloves during the critical period became imprinted on the gloves
– This supports Lorenz’s view that young animals are not born with a predisposition to mate with specific objects or animals by any moving object that is present during the critical period
– He later found that the male chickens later tried to mate with the gloves
– This shows that early imprinting is linked to later reproductive behaviour
– Therefore, these findings provide clear support for Lorenz’s research and conclusions
LIMITATION
Not generalisable
– There is a problem generalising these findings on birds to humans.
– This is because the mammalian attachment system is quite different from that in birds.
– Humans are more complex than animals and our brains are different to that of geese
– This means that it is not appropriate to try to generalise any of Lorenz’s observations to human attachment
HARLOW’S RESEARCH (1959)
– Harry Harlow conducted a study on rhesus monkeys and attachment
PROCEDURE
– Harlow created two wire mothers, one wire mother was wrapped in a soft cloth
– Harlow reared 8 baby rhesus monkeys over 165 days
– For four of the monkeys the cloth covered mother produced milk and for the other four the wire mother produced milk
– Time measurements were taken of how long each money spent with each mother
– Observations were also taken of the monkey’s reponses when frightened eg. by a mechanical teddy
FINDINGS
– All 8 monkeys spent most of the time with the cloth mother and they cuddled the soft object
– Those who were fed from the wire mother spent little time getting milk before returning to the cloth mother
– They sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened, regardless of which dispensed milk.
– This showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
LONG LASTING EFFECTS
– Harlow also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect.
– He reported that all the monkeys, even those reared by the cloth mother were socially abnormal
– They were more aggressive, unsociable, bred less often and did not cuddle their own babies.
– Monkeys that did spend time with other monkeys before 3 months old were able to recover, 3 months is seen as the critical period
CONCLUSIONS
– 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 and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.
EVALUATION OF HARLOW
STRENGTHS
Theoretical Value
-These findings have had a profound effect on psychologists’ understanding of human mother-infant attachment.
-Most importantly Harlow showed that attachment does not develop as a result of being fed by a mother figure but as a result of contact comfort and also the effect that deprivation has on later life.
– Harlow has also showed us the importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development
– Including the ability to hold down successful adult relationships and rear children
– Therefore, this study has added to our knowledge of attachment and has been applied to our own relationships
LIMITATION
Ethical Issues
– A study such as Harlow’s could not be done with humans, but there is also a question whether it should be done with monkeys.
– The study created long lasting emotional harm as the monkeys later found it difficult to form relationships with their peers.
– On the other hand, the experiment could be justified in terms of the significant effect it has an understanding of the process of attachment
– However, this species of monkey is considered similar enough to humans to be able to generalise the findings, which also means that their suffering was presumably quite human-like.
– Therefore, the study was traumatic for the monkeys and they have suffered ever since so there are ethical issues of harm