Attachment
Essay plans
AQA
, Describe and evaluate animal studies of attachment
16 marks
A01:
Lorenz
Divided a clutch of goose eggs, and half of these were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment.
The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
It was found that the incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whilst the control group followed the mt=other
When the two groups were mixed up, the control group continued to follow the mother, and the experimental group continued to
follow Lorenz.
This is called imprinting, where species attach to and follow the first moving object they see.
Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place, and if it doesn’t occur during this time period, then Lorenz
found that the chicks didn’t hatch
Harlow
Tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions as a mother
He reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
In one condition, the wire mother dispensed food, whilst the other condition showed a cloth wire model dispensing food.
IT was found that the baby monkeys ran to the cloth covered mothers and sought comfort from them when they were frightened.
This shows that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
Harlow also concluded that there was a critical period for attachment formation- a mother had to introduced to a young monkey
within 90 days for an attachment to form
A03:
+One strength of Lorenz’s research is the existence of support for the concept of imprinting. A study took place where chicks were exposed
to simple shape combinations that moved e.g. a triangle with a rectangle in front. A range of shape combinations were then moved in front of
them and they followed the original most closely. This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint
on a moving object present in the critical window of development.
-One limitation of Lorenz study is that it doesn’t have the ability to generalise and findings conclusions from birds to humans. The
mammalian attachment system is different and more complex than that in birds. E.g. in mammals, attachment is a two-way process, so its
not just the young who become attached to their mothers. Also, mammalian mothers show an emotional response to their young. This
means that it’s probably not appropriate to generalise humans findings to humans.
+One strength of Harlows research is its important real world applications. E.g. it has helped social workers and clinical psychologists
understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor
outcomes. We also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild.
This means that the value of Harlow’s research is not just theoretical but also practical
-One limitation of Harlow’s research is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans. The monkeys that Harlow
used are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds, and all mammals share common attachment behaviours. However, the human
brain and human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys. This means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow’s
findings to humans.
Essay plans
AQA
, Describe and evaluate animal studies of attachment
16 marks
A01:
Lorenz
Divided a clutch of goose eggs, and half of these were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment.
The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
It was found that the incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whilst the control group followed the mt=other
When the two groups were mixed up, the control group continued to follow the mother, and the experimental group continued to
follow Lorenz.
This is called imprinting, where species attach to and follow the first moving object they see.
Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place, and if it doesn’t occur during this time period, then Lorenz
found that the chicks didn’t hatch
Harlow
Tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions as a mother
He reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
In one condition, the wire mother dispensed food, whilst the other condition showed a cloth wire model dispensing food.
IT was found that the baby monkeys ran to the cloth covered mothers and sought comfort from them when they were frightened.
This shows that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
Harlow also concluded that there was a critical period for attachment formation- a mother had to introduced to a young monkey
within 90 days for an attachment to form
A03:
+One strength of Lorenz’s research is the existence of support for the concept of imprinting. A study took place where chicks were exposed
to simple shape combinations that moved e.g. a triangle with a rectangle in front. A range of shape combinations were then moved in front of
them and they followed the original most closely. This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint
on a moving object present in the critical window of development.
-One limitation of Lorenz study is that it doesn’t have the ability to generalise and findings conclusions from birds to humans. The
mammalian attachment system is different and more complex than that in birds. E.g. in mammals, attachment is a two-way process, so its
not just the young who become attached to their mothers. Also, mammalian mothers show an emotional response to their young. This
means that it’s probably not appropriate to generalise humans findings to humans.
+One strength of Harlows research is its important real world applications. E.g. it has helped social workers and clinical psychologists
understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor
outcomes. We also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild.
This means that the value of Harlow’s research is not just theoretical but also practical
-One limitation of Harlow’s research is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans. The monkeys that Harlow
used are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds, and all mammals share common attachment behaviours. However, the human
brain and human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys. This means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow’s
findings to humans.
