Paper 1 - Attachment
Animal Studies of Attachment
Imprinting = an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother - takes place during a
specific time in development
KEY STUDY: LORENZ (1935)
Procedure:
- Divided a clutch of gosling eggs into 2 groups
- One was left with their natural mother
- The other was placed in an incubator - when they hatched the first moving thing they saw
was Lorenz and soon started following him around
Findings:
- The goslings divided themselves up into the 2 groups: Lorenz’s showed no recognition of their
natural mother.
- He noted that imprinting is restricted to a critical period: 4-25 hours after hatching - a very
definite period of the animal’s life
- If a young animal is not exposed to a moving object during this time it will not imprint
- It is a process similar to attachment
Long lasting effects
- The process is long lasting and irreversible e.g. one goose (Martina) slept on his bed every night
- Sexual imprinting - animals choose to mate with the same kind of object that they imprinted on
LORENZ EVALUATIONS
Research Support?
Hess (1958) repeated the study on ducklings, and refined the critical period to 13-17 hours after
hatching, the period when it was strongest, and it was difficult to show after 32 hours.
Guiton (1966): found that chickens originally imprinted to yellow rubber gloves & tried to mate with them
● HOWEVER, after spending time with their own species, they engaged in normal sexual
behaviour
Limited Application to Humans
● Human infants are more complex than young birds, and a completely different species
● Mammals display more affection to their young
, KEY STUDY: HARLOW (1959)
Sought to demonstrate that attachment was not based on the feeding bond between mother & infant as
predicted by learning theory.
Procedure:
- Created 2 mothers with 2 different heads, one was also wrapped in soft cloth
- 8 rhesus monkeys were studied for 165 days
- 4 = milk bottle was on the cloth covered mother; other 4 = bottle on a plain wire mother
- Measurements were made for the amount of time each infant spent with the 2 different mothers
- Observations were made of the responses when frightened
Findings:
- All 8 spent most of the time with the cloth covered mother - those who fed from the wire only
spent a small time there to get milk
- When frightened all monkeys clung to the cloth covered mother
- Suggests that infants develop an attachment to the person offering contact comfort rather than
the person that feeds them
Long lasting effects:
- Continued to study the monkeys as they grew up - found consequences of early attachment
experiences
- The motherless monkeys were sexually and socially abnormal e.g. froze or fled when
approached by other monkeys
- Also found a critical period - if they spent time with their monkey peers before they were 3
months old they seemed to recover. Spending 6+ months with only a wire mother = no recovery.
HARLOW EVALUATIONS
Practical, Real World Applications (social workers & zoos)
Howe (1998) reports that the knowledge gained from Harlow’s research has helped social workers
understand risk factors in neglect and abuse cases with human children which can then serve to prevent
it occurring or, at the very least, recognise when to intervene.
+ Recognised the importance of skin to skin contact at birth
In addition, there are practical applications which are used in the care of captive wild monkeys in zoos or
breeding programmes to ensure that they have adequate attachment figures as part of their care.
Massive Ethical Issues
The rhesus monkeys suffered greatly in terms of emotional separation from their biological mother at
such an early age due to the procedure Harlow used.
● If the species of primates are considered to be sufficiently human-like to generalise the results
beyond the sample used then it stands to reason that the effects of psychological harm that they
will have endured are similar to that of a human baby also.
○ Deprived of social activity, so many were dysfunctional in later life
○ Harlow named the wire mothers after medieval torture devices
There is, however, the question of whether the insight obtained was sufficiently important to
psychologists’ understanding of attachment that Harlow was justified in his approach (link to above)
Animal Studies of Attachment
Imprinting = an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother - takes place during a
specific time in development
KEY STUDY: LORENZ (1935)
Procedure:
- Divided a clutch of gosling eggs into 2 groups
- One was left with their natural mother
- The other was placed in an incubator - when they hatched the first moving thing they saw
was Lorenz and soon started following him around
Findings:
- The goslings divided themselves up into the 2 groups: Lorenz’s showed no recognition of their
natural mother.
- He noted that imprinting is restricted to a critical period: 4-25 hours after hatching - a very
definite period of the animal’s life
- If a young animal is not exposed to a moving object during this time it will not imprint
- It is a process similar to attachment
Long lasting effects
- The process is long lasting and irreversible e.g. one goose (Martina) slept on his bed every night
- Sexual imprinting - animals choose to mate with the same kind of object that they imprinted on
LORENZ EVALUATIONS
Research Support?
Hess (1958) repeated the study on ducklings, and refined the critical period to 13-17 hours after
hatching, the period when it was strongest, and it was difficult to show after 32 hours.
Guiton (1966): found that chickens originally imprinted to yellow rubber gloves & tried to mate with them
● HOWEVER, after spending time with their own species, they engaged in normal sexual
behaviour
Limited Application to Humans
● Human infants are more complex than young birds, and a completely different species
● Mammals display more affection to their young
, KEY STUDY: HARLOW (1959)
Sought to demonstrate that attachment was not based on the feeding bond between mother & infant as
predicted by learning theory.
Procedure:
- Created 2 mothers with 2 different heads, one was also wrapped in soft cloth
- 8 rhesus monkeys were studied for 165 days
- 4 = milk bottle was on the cloth covered mother; other 4 = bottle on a plain wire mother
- Measurements were made for the amount of time each infant spent with the 2 different mothers
- Observations were made of the responses when frightened
Findings:
- All 8 spent most of the time with the cloth covered mother - those who fed from the wire only
spent a small time there to get milk
- When frightened all monkeys clung to the cloth covered mother
- Suggests that infants develop an attachment to the person offering contact comfort rather than
the person that feeds them
Long lasting effects:
- Continued to study the monkeys as they grew up - found consequences of early attachment
experiences
- The motherless monkeys were sexually and socially abnormal e.g. froze or fled when
approached by other monkeys
- Also found a critical period - if they spent time with their monkey peers before they were 3
months old they seemed to recover. Spending 6+ months with only a wire mother = no recovery.
HARLOW EVALUATIONS
Practical, Real World Applications (social workers & zoos)
Howe (1998) reports that the knowledge gained from Harlow’s research has helped social workers
understand risk factors in neglect and abuse cases with human children which can then serve to prevent
it occurring or, at the very least, recognise when to intervene.
+ Recognised the importance of skin to skin contact at birth
In addition, there are practical applications which are used in the care of captive wild monkeys in zoos or
breeding programmes to ensure that they have adequate attachment figures as part of their care.
Massive Ethical Issues
The rhesus monkeys suffered greatly in terms of emotional separation from their biological mother at
such an early age due to the procedure Harlow used.
● If the species of primates are considered to be sufficiently human-like to generalise the results
beyond the sample used then it stands to reason that the effects of psychological harm that they
will have endured are similar to that of a human baby also.
○ Deprived of social activity, so many were dysfunctional in later life
○ Harlow named the wire mothers after medieval torture devices
There is, however, the question of whether the insight obtained was sufficiently important to
psychologists’ understanding of attachment that Harlow was justified in his approach (link to above)
