Attachment - Describe and Evaluate Animal Studies in Attachment

2024

AO1 (1)
Lorenz divided 12 goose eggs, half hatched with the mother, half hatched in an
incubator.

AO1 (2)
Incubator group followed Lorenz around, the control group followed the mother.

AO1 (3)
Through imprinting, new born geese attach to the first moving object; had to happen a
few hours after hatching.

AO1 (4)
Harlow investigated the role of food and comfort. He put monkey's in a cage with a wire
mother (who dispensed milk) and a cloth mother (soft to touch).

AO1 (5)
More time was spent with the cloth mother, 22/24 hours and went to the cloth mother
when scared.

AO1 (6)
Attachment develops through comfort rather than food as proposed by the learning
theory.

Generalisability
P = Lorenz - difficult to generalize birds to humans as our attachments are very
different.
E = Humans don't imprint on the first things we see.
E = Human mothers show more emotional attachment.
L = Bowlby said humans and birds have a critical period.

Replicability
P = Lorenz's results have been replicated.
E = Gunton found that chickens imprinted on yellow rubber gloves and tried to mate with
them.
E = These chickens eventually learnt to prefer mating with other chickens.
L = Demonstrates sexual imprinting is not permanent.

Application
P = Harlow's study can be applied to real-life.
E = The study helped social workers understand the implications of lack and comfort.
E = Before, child neglect was more focused on their physical needs not being met.
L = Knowledge from Harlow's study can be used to intervene and prevent psychological
damage in children.

Validity
P = Harlow's study was high in internal validity.
E = Controlled setting.
E = Each monkey was scared by the same stimulus and had the option of going to the
same wire mothers.
L = The conclusions made that comfort is more important than food is genuine.

Ethical Issues
P = Harlow's study was considered unethical as the monkey's were subject to physical
harm.
E = The monkeys were sacred causing them unnecessary distress; they had no
protection from harm.
E = Monkeys are considered similar to humans so can be generalised.
L = Harlow's research was sufficiently important to justify the effects.