Stages of attachment - animal studies
2 key studies: • Imprinting - Lorenz + contact comfort - Harlow
Imprinting - Lorenz (1935):
• divided clutch of goose eggs into 2 groups
• 1 group was hatched by mother goose + followed her around
• 2nd group hatched in an incubator. First thing they saw on hatching was Lorenz.
These goslings followed him around.
·
• He marked the goslings for identification and put groups under a box together. He then released
them in the presence of both himself and the goose.
• Lorenz's goslings followed him and were distressed without him, the same went for the mother
goose + her goslings
Imprinting - process directing animals to attach themselves to the first moving thing they see.
• happens in a critical period - around 2 weeks after hatching.
• attachment has no link with food
• Applicable to multiple animals → suggests imprinting is primary drive
Ao3 evaluation: Lorenz + imprinting:
Generalisation problems: geese are different to humans- humans form attachments, even without
imprinting. Humans have sensitive period instead of critical period (6-8 months to 18-24 months)
Contact comfort - Harlow (1958):
• believed that comfort and security, rather than food, were the crucial factors involved in attachment
• separated 8 monkeys from their mothers and isolated them in separate cages
• provided 2 wire surrogate mothers which provided food
◦ One was wrapped in soft towering cloth (to provide contact comfort)
◦ One was left bare
• only visited wire mother to feed- both groups went to cloth one for comfort
◦ suggests food isn’t the determiner of attachment
Babies fed by the wire mother showed they had not developed in a healthy way
Adulthood = Indifferent/abusive towards other monkeys, difficulty mating and neglected
their children
A03 evaluation: contact comfort + Harlow:
• Used rhesus monkeys: Hard to generalise to humans → differences in development + behaviour
• Challenged previous views of learning theory linking attachment with food → attachment ≠ simple
learning
• Ethical concerns: Monkeys are intelligent, separation from mother may cause harm
, Learning theory
Learning theory = behaviour is learnt through classical + operant conditioning and we are a "blank
slate" at birth.
Classical conditioning: Stimulus = event that causes a response
Learning through association Response = reaction as a result of stimulus
• infants learn to associate feeding/ being activated
comfort with primary carer/mother → Conditioned = learnt behaviour
Operant conditioning:
Learning occurs following reinforcement making a behaviour pleasurable → more likely to repeat
• infant learns that smiling (social releaser) brings attention from adults (positive reinforcement)
• adult learns that responding to cries etc. relieves noise (negative reinforcement)
Dollard + Miller (1949):
Hungry infants have a "drive" to seek food (reducing hunger)
• Feeding = reduces drive = pleasure (positive reinforcement)
◦ behaviour is more likely to be repeated
• food = primary reinforcer
◦ However, attachment to caregiver = child seeks the person who can supply the reward
A03 evaluation - learning theory:
Food vs cuddles?
• learning theory = who is associated with pleasure- contradicts contact comfort explanations of
attachment (eg. Harlow)
Explanatory power:
• Food may not be the only reinforcer. Doesn’t consider alternatives such as attention +
responsiveness → questions validity
Animal based research:
• Generalisability issues + controlled method is not possible with humans
Better explanations?:
• Potentially describes some aspects of attachment, rather than explaining why they happen
2 key studies: • Imprinting - Lorenz + contact comfort - Harlow
Imprinting - Lorenz (1935):
• divided clutch of goose eggs into 2 groups
• 1 group was hatched by mother goose + followed her around
• 2nd group hatched in an incubator. First thing they saw on hatching was Lorenz.
These goslings followed him around.
·
• He marked the goslings for identification and put groups under a box together. He then released
them in the presence of both himself and the goose.
• Lorenz's goslings followed him and were distressed without him, the same went for the mother
goose + her goslings
Imprinting - process directing animals to attach themselves to the first moving thing they see.
• happens in a critical period - around 2 weeks after hatching.
• attachment has no link with food
• Applicable to multiple animals → suggests imprinting is primary drive
Ao3 evaluation: Lorenz + imprinting:
Generalisation problems: geese are different to humans- humans form attachments, even without
imprinting. Humans have sensitive period instead of critical period (6-8 months to 18-24 months)
Contact comfort - Harlow (1958):
• believed that comfort and security, rather than food, were the crucial factors involved in attachment
• separated 8 monkeys from their mothers and isolated them in separate cages
• provided 2 wire surrogate mothers which provided food
◦ One was wrapped in soft towering cloth (to provide contact comfort)
◦ One was left bare
• only visited wire mother to feed- both groups went to cloth one for comfort
◦ suggests food isn’t the determiner of attachment
Babies fed by the wire mother showed they had not developed in a healthy way
Adulthood = Indifferent/abusive towards other monkeys, difficulty mating and neglected
their children
A03 evaluation: contact comfort + Harlow:
• Used rhesus monkeys: Hard to generalise to humans → differences in development + behaviour
• Challenged previous views of learning theory linking attachment with food → attachment ≠ simple
learning
• Ethical concerns: Monkeys are intelligent, separation from mother may cause harm
, Learning theory
Learning theory = behaviour is learnt through classical + operant conditioning and we are a "blank
slate" at birth.
Classical conditioning: Stimulus = event that causes a response
Learning through association Response = reaction as a result of stimulus
• infants learn to associate feeding/ being activated
comfort with primary carer/mother → Conditioned = learnt behaviour
Operant conditioning:
Learning occurs following reinforcement making a behaviour pleasurable → more likely to repeat
• infant learns that smiling (social releaser) brings attention from adults (positive reinforcement)
• adult learns that responding to cries etc. relieves noise (negative reinforcement)
Dollard + Miller (1949):
Hungry infants have a "drive" to seek food (reducing hunger)
• Feeding = reduces drive = pleasure (positive reinforcement)
◦ behaviour is more likely to be repeated
• food = primary reinforcer
◦ However, attachment to caregiver = child seeks the person who can supply the reward
A03 evaluation - learning theory:
Food vs cuddles?
• learning theory = who is associated with pleasure- contradicts contact comfort explanations of
attachment (eg. Harlow)
Explanatory power:
• Food may not be the only reinforcer. Doesn’t consider alternatives such as attention +
responsiveness → questions validity
Animal based research:
• Generalisability issues + controlled method is not possible with humans
Better explanations?:
• Potentially describes some aspects of attachment, rather than explaining why they happen
