Animal studies of attachment
Lorenz carried out an imprinting study. He randomly split a group of goose eggs in half. One-half
were hatched with their mother in their normal environment. The other half hatched in an incubator
and the first moving object they saw was Lorenz. Lorenz then mixed all the goslings to see whom
they would follow. Lorenz found that the incubator group followed Lorenz, whilst the control group
followed their mother. Lorenz also found that there is a critical period where the imprinting needs to
take place, which is a few hours after they hatched. If they didn't form an attachment, then the
chicks would not attach to any mother figure. Sexual imprinting occurs in the birds, where the birds
will find a template of their desirable characteristics required by a mate.
Harlow carried out a study to show the importance of comfort control. Harlow had 16 monkeys in a
room, each with a fake wire monkey and a fake cloth monkey. In one condition, the milk was
dispensed by the wire monkey, and in the other condition, the cloth monkey dispensed the milk.
Harlow measured which one the monkeys preferred. Harlow measured their attachment by seeing
how the monkey's reacted when they were in frightening situations. Harlow added a loud
mechanical bear to the environment. Harlow continued to study the monkeys into their adulthood
to see how the maternally deprived monkeys acted. Harlow found that the baby monkeys preferred
and cuddled with the cloth-covered monkey in preference, regardless of which dispensed milk. This
suggests that comfort is more important than food in attachment behaviour. The monkeys would go
to the cloth-covered monkey when they were frightened. As adults, the maternally deprived
monkeys were aggressive, less sociable, and less skilled at mating than other monkeys.
A strength of Lorenz's study is that there is support for imprinting. Two other researchers exposed
chicks to simple shapes that would move around. When the chicks were shown shapes, the chicks
would prefer these shapes to any other shapes. This suggests that young animals are born with a
mechanism to imprint on a moving object.
A limitation of Lorenz's study is that the study is generalised from birds to humans. Humans'
attachment styles are different from imprinting in birds. Human mothers show more emotional
attachment to their young, for example. This means that it might not be good to generalise Lorenz's
ideas about imprinting to humans.
A strength of Harlow's research is that it has real-world value. Social workers can understand the risk
factors of child abuse and help prevent it. We can also understand the importance of attachment
figures for baby animals at the zoo and in breeding programmes. This means Harlow's research has
benefitted both humans and animals.
A limitation of Harlow's research is that the study is generalised from monkeys to humans. Monkeys
are more similar to humans than Lorenz's geese and all mammals share some similarities in
attachment systems. Monkeys are however not human and the human mind is much more
complicated. This means that it might not be good to generalise Harlow's findings to humans.
Lorenz carried out an imprinting study. He randomly split a group of goose eggs in half. One-half
were hatched with their mother in their normal environment. The other half hatched in an incubator
and the first moving object they saw was Lorenz. Lorenz then mixed all the goslings to see whom
they would follow. Lorenz found that the incubator group followed Lorenz, whilst the control group
followed their mother. Lorenz also found that there is a critical period where the imprinting needs to
take place, which is a few hours after they hatched. If they didn't form an attachment, then the
chicks would not attach to any mother figure. Sexual imprinting occurs in the birds, where the birds
will find a template of their desirable characteristics required by a mate.
Harlow carried out a study to show the importance of comfort control. Harlow had 16 monkeys in a
room, each with a fake wire monkey and a fake cloth monkey. In one condition, the milk was
dispensed by the wire monkey, and in the other condition, the cloth monkey dispensed the milk.
Harlow measured which one the monkeys preferred. Harlow measured their attachment by seeing
how the monkey's reacted when they were in frightening situations. Harlow added a loud
mechanical bear to the environment. Harlow continued to study the monkeys into their adulthood
to see how the maternally deprived monkeys acted. Harlow found that the baby monkeys preferred
and cuddled with the cloth-covered monkey in preference, regardless of which dispensed milk. This
suggests that comfort is more important than food in attachment behaviour. The monkeys would go
to the cloth-covered monkey when they were frightened. As adults, the maternally deprived
monkeys were aggressive, less sociable, and less skilled at mating than other monkeys.
A strength of Lorenz's study is that there is support for imprinting. Two other researchers exposed
chicks to simple shapes that would move around. When the chicks were shown shapes, the chicks
would prefer these shapes to any other shapes. This suggests that young animals are born with a
mechanism to imprint on a moving object.
A limitation of Lorenz's study is that the study is generalised from birds to humans. Humans'
attachment styles are different from imprinting in birds. Human mothers show more emotional
attachment to their young, for example. This means that it might not be good to generalise Lorenz's
ideas about imprinting to humans.
A strength of Harlow's research is that it has real-world value. Social workers can understand the risk
factors of child abuse and help prevent it. We can also understand the importance of attachment
figures for baby animals at the zoo and in breeding programmes. This means Harlow's research has
benefitted both humans and animals.
A limitation of Harlow's research is that the study is generalised from monkeys to humans. Monkeys
are more similar to humans than Lorenz's geese and all mammals share some similarities in
attachment systems. Monkeys are however not human and the human mind is much more
complicated. This means that it might not be good to generalise Harlow's findings to humans.
