ANIMAL STUDIES OF ATTACHMENT:
LORENZ’S RESEARCH:
Imprinting
- Procedure: randomly divided clutch of goose eggs, half hatched with mother goose in
natural environment and other half hatched in an incubator where first moving object they
saw was Lorenz.
- Findings: incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas control followed their
mother. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to occur, depending on
species by be a brief few hours. If imprinting doesn’t occur them then it won’t.
Sexual imprinting
- Lorenz also investigated relationships between imprinting and adult male preferences.
Observed that birds that imprinted on a human would later display courtship behaviours
towards humans.
EVALUATION:
Research support: Regolin and Vallortigara support Lorenz’s ideas. Chicks were exposed to simple
shape combinations that moved. Range moved in front of them, and they followed the original most
closely. Support view that young animals have innate mechanism to imprint of a moving object.
Generalisability to humans: mammalian attachment system is very different and more complex.
Example: attachment is a 2-way process in mammals, mothers show bond. Means not appropriate to
generalise findings.
HARLOW’S RESEARCH:
Importance of contact comfort
- Procedure: reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’. One plain wired mother
that dispensed milk and one cloth mother.
- Findings: cloth mother was preferred whether it dispensed milk or not. Sought comfort
from cloth mother when frightened.
Maternally deprived monkeys as adults and critical period
- Also followed monkeys who had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother to see if early maternal
deprivation had a permanent effect. Deprived monkeys were more aggressive and less
sociable so bred less.
- Mother figure had to be introduced within 90 days for attachment to form.
EVALUATION:
Real-world value: has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of
bonding experience may be a risk factor in chid development allowing them to intervene and
prevent poor outcomes. Also understand importance of attachment for baby monkeys in zoos.
Shows theoretical and practical applications.
Generalisability to humans: monkeys are more similar to humans than birds however human brain
and behaviour is still more complex than monkeys, means it may not be appropriate to generalise
findings to humans.
, EXPLANATIONS OF ATTACHMENT: LEARNING THEORY:
LEARNING THEORY AND ATTACHMENT:
Learning theorists Dollard and Miller proposed that caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by
learning theory, ‘cupboard love’
Classical conditioning
- Learning through association. Food is an US and being fed elicits a pleasure response which
is UR. Caregiver starts as NS. When caregiver provides food, they become associated with
the food, so NS becomes CS. Once conditioning has taken place the sight of the caregiver
produces a conditioned pleasure response of love
Operant conditioning
- Learning from consequences of behaviour. Explains why babies cry for comfort, crying leads
to a response from the caregiver, if response is correct crying is reinforced. Baby then directs
crying for comfort from caregiver who responds with comforting ‘social suppressor’
behaviour. Same time as baby reinforced for crying caregiver receives negative
reinforcement because crying stops.
Attachment as a secondary drive
- Drive reduction. Hunger is primary drive – its innate, biological motivator, motivated to eat
to reduce hunger drive. Sears suggested that as caregivers provide food the primary drive
becomes generalised to them, and attachment is a secondary drive
EVALUATION:
Counter evidence from animal studies: Lorenz’s geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw
regardless of whether the object is associated with food. Harlow’s study the monkeys displayed
attachment towards the soft ‘mother in preference to the wire one that provided food. Shows
factors other than association with food are important.
Counter evidence from studies on humans: Schaffer and Emerson found that babies tended to form
their main attachment to their mother regardless of whether she was the one who usually fed them.
Isabella et al. found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment.
These factors aren’t related to feeding. Suggests that food is not the main factor in formation of
attachments.
Some conditioning may be involved: elements of conditioning could be involved in some aspects of
attachment. Seems unlikely that association with food plays a central role in attachment, but
conditioning may still play a role. Example: baby may associate feeling warm and comfortable with
the presence of a particular adult, this may influence the baby’s choice of their main attachment
figure, means learning theory may still be used in understanding the development of attachments.
LORENZ’S RESEARCH:
Imprinting
- Procedure: randomly divided clutch of goose eggs, half hatched with mother goose in
natural environment and other half hatched in an incubator where first moving object they
saw was Lorenz.
- Findings: incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas control followed their
mother. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to occur, depending on
species by be a brief few hours. If imprinting doesn’t occur them then it won’t.
Sexual imprinting
- Lorenz also investigated relationships between imprinting and adult male preferences.
Observed that birds that imprinted on a human would later display courtship behaviours
towards humans.
EVALUATION:
Research support: Regolin and Vallortigara support Lorenz’s ideas. Chicks were exposed to simple
shape combinations that moved. Range moved in front of them, and they followed the original most
closely. Support view that young animals have innate mechanism to imprint of a moving object.
Generalisability to humans: mammalian attachment system is very different and more complex.
Example: attachment is a 2-way process in mammals, mothers show bond. Means not appropriate to
generalise findings.
HARLOW’S RESEARCH:
Importance of contact comfort
- Procedure: reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’. One plain wired mother
that dispensed milk and one cloth mother.
- Findings: cloth mother was preferred whether it dispensed milk or not. Sought comfort
from cloth mother when frightened.
Maternally deprived monkeys as adults and critical period
- Also followed monkeys who had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother to see if early maternal
deprivation had a permanent effect. Deprived monkeys were more aggressive and less
sociable so bred less.
- Mother figure had to be introduced within 90 days for attachment to form.
EVALUATION:
Real-world value: has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of
bonding experience may be a risk factor in chid development allowing them to intervene and
prevent poor outcomes. Also understand importance of attachment for baby monkeys in zoos.
Shows theoretical and practical applications.
Generalisability to humans: monkeys are more similar to humans than birds however human brain
and behaviour is still more complex than monkeys, means it may not be appropriate to generalise
findings to humans.
, EXPLANATIONS OF ATTACHMENT: LEARNING THEORY:
LEARNING THEORY AND ATTACHMENT:
Learning theorists Dollard and Miller proposed that caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by
learning theory, ‘cupboard love’
Classical conditioning
- Learning through association. Food is an US and being fed elicits a pleasure response which
is UR. Caregiver starts as NS. When caregiver provides food, they become associated with
the food, so NS becomes CS. Once conditioning has taken place the sight of the caregiver
produces a conditioned pleasure response of love
Operant conditioning
- Learning from consequences of behaviour. Explains why babies cry for comfort, crying leads
to a response from the caregiver, if response is correct crying is reinforced. Baby then directs
crying for comfort from caregiver who responds with comforting ‘social suppressor’
behaviour. Same time as baby reinforced for crying caregiver receives negative
reinforcement because crying stops.
Attachment as a secondary drive
- Drive reduction. Hunger is primary drive – its innate, biological motivator, motivated to eat
to reduce hunger drive. Sears suggested that as caregivers provide food the primary drive
becomes generalised to them, and attachment is a secondary drive
EVALUATION:
Counter evidence from animal studies: Lorenz’s geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw
regardless of whether the object is associated with food. Harlow’s study the monkeys displayed
attachment towards the soft ‘mother in preference to the wire one that provided food. Shows
factors other than association with food are important.
Counter evidence from studies on humans: Schaffer and Emerson found that babies tended to form
their main attachment to their mother regardless of whether she was the one who usually fed them.
Isabella et al. found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment.
These factors aren’t related to feeding. Suggests that food is not the main factor in formation of
attachments.
Some conditioning may be involved: elements of conditioning could be involved in some aspects of
attachment. Seems unlikely that association with food plays a central role in attachment, but
conditioning may still play a role. Example: baby may associate feeling warm and comfortable with
the presence of a particular adult, this may influence the baby’s choice of their main attachment
figure, means learning theory may still be used in understanding the development of attachments.
