Psychology: Attachment
Animal studies of attachment:
Lorenz’s Research:
In the early 20th century a number of ecologists conducted animal studies to see the
relationship between infant animals and their mothers as it helps psychologists to
understand mother-infant attachment in humans.
Imprinting:
Lorenz first observed the phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child a neighbour gave
him a newly hatched duckling that followed him around.
As an adult, Lorenz set up an experiment where he divides a clutch of goose eggs. Half the
eggs were hatched with the mother goose and the other half were hatched in an incubator
where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz. The incubator group followed Lorenz
around whereas the control group stayed with their mother goose. When the two groups
were mixed the control group still followed the mother goose and the incubator group
followed Lorenz. This phenomenon is called imprinting as when bird species are born they
get attached to the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified a critical period in which
imprinting needs to take place and depending on the species this can be a few hours after
hatching (or birth). If imprinting does not occur within that time period then Lorenz found
that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.
Sexual imprinting:
Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences.
He found that birds that imprinted on a human tended to show courtship behaviour
(intimate) on humans. In a case study, Lorenz described how the first moving object a
peacock saw was giant tortoises. As an adult, this bird would only direct courtship behaviour
(intimate) towards tortoises. Lorenz concluded that this meant he undergone sexual
imprinting.
Evaluation:
One limitation of Lorenz’s research is that the findings from birds is not generalisable
to humans as the mammalian attachment system is different from birds. For e.g.
mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment from young than birds, and
mammals are able to form attachments at any time unlike birds. This means that it is
not appropriate to try to generalise any of Lorenz’s ideas to humans.
Another limitation of Lorenz’s research is that other researchers have questioned
Lorenz’s conclusions. For e.g. Guiton et al found that chicken imprinted on yellow
washing up gloves and would try to mate with them as adults but that with
experience the chickens would learn to prefer mating with other chickens. This
suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not as permanent as
Lorenz claims.
Harlow’s Research:
The importance of contact comfort:
Harlow observed new-born monkeys that were kept alone in a cage to see if they survived if
they were given something soft like a cloth to cuddle. In one experiment, he reared 16 baby
monkeys with 2 wired model ‘mothers’. In one condition milk was provided by the plain
wire mother whereas in the second condition the milk dispensed by the cloth covered
mother. The findings showed that the baby monkeys cuddled the soft cloth-covered
Animal studies of attachment:
Lorenz’s Research:
In the early 20th century a number of ecologists conducted animal studies to see the
relationship between infant animals and their mothers as it helps psychologists to
understand mother-infant attachment in humans.
Imprinting:
Lorenz first observed the phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child a neighbour gave
him a newly hatched duckling that followed him around.
As an adult, Lorenz set up an experiment where he divides a clutch of goose eggs. Half the
eggs were hatched with the mother goose and the other half were hatched in an incubator
where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz. The incubator group followed Lorenz
around whereas the control group stayed with their mother goose. When the two groups
were mixed the control group still followed the mother goose and the incubator group
followed Lorenz. This phenomenon is called imprinting as when bird species are born they
get attached to the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified a critical period in which
imprinting needs to take place and depending on the species this can be a few hours after
hatching (or birth). If imprinting does not occur within that time period then Lorenz found
that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.
Sexual imprinting:
Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences.
He found that birds that imprinted on a human tended to show courtship behaviour
(intimate) on humans. In a case study, Lorenz described how the first moving object a
peacock saw was giant tortoises. As an adult, this bird would only direct courtship behaviour
(intimate) towards tortoises. Lorenz concluded that this meant he undergone sexual
imprinting.
Evaluation:
One limitation of Lorenz’s research is that the findings from birds is not generalisable
to humans as the mammalian attachment system is different from birds. For e.g.
mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment from young than birds, and
mammals are able to form attachments at any time unlike birds. This means that it is
not appropriate to try to generalise any of Lorenz’s ideas to humans.
Another limitation of Lorenz’s research is that other researchers have questioned
Lorenz’s conclusions. For e.g. Guiton et al found that chicken imprinted on yellow
washing up gloves and would try to mate with them as adults but that with
experience the chickens would learn to prefer mating with other chickens. This
suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not as permanent as
Lorenz claims.
Harlow’s Research:
The importance of contact comfort:
Harlow observed new-born monkeys that were kept alone in a cage to see if they survived if
they were given something soft like a cloth to cuddle. In one experiment, he reared 16 baby
monkeys with 2 wired model ‘mothers’. In one condition milk was provided by the plain
wire mother whereas in the second condition the milk dispensed by the cloth covered
mother. The findings showed that the baby monkeys cuddled the soft cloth-covered
