Attachment - animal studies

What did lorenz do?

He separated a clutch of goose eggs into two groups.

One group was hatched with their mother

One group was hatched with him in an incubator

What did lorenz find?

He found that the group that hatched with their mother immediately followed her around after hatching

The group that hatches from the incubator and saw him first immediately followed him around because they imprinted on him

What is imprinting

When an animal bonds to the first thing it sees and follow it around

What did lorenz find out about sexual imprinting?

Thr idea thst the first object/being that the animal has imprintedon becomes a template for adult mating behaviour

Evaluation point involving the fact that this research was done on animals

Because his research was done on animals it makes hard to apply to humans because of the major psychological and biological between us. There for the study has little application use

A negativeevaluation point involving Guiton et al

Guiton et al found that chickens that had imprinted on yellow gloves tried to mate eith them but eventually began mating with other chickens. This goes against lorenzs ideas about sexual imprinting as its shown that this can be something that changes over tike rather than being solely reliant on it’s imprinting

What was the aim of harlows research

To investigate if food or comfort was more important in forming attachment

What was the method of harlows research

16 baby monkeys were taken from birth and raised on two diffrent artificial mothers.

One was a cloth mother - offering warmth and comfort

One was a wire mother - offering food

What as the results of this experiment

Monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother and sought comfort from her even though she was unable to give them food and only went to the wire mother when absolutely necessary

Spent up to 22 hours a day with cloth mother

What as the conclusion of harlows research

Disproved the belief that attachment was formed based on the need to feed and instead suggested thst attachment was formed through contact comfort

What was the effect when the monkeys were raised only on the wire mother

They had the most dysfunctional behaviour

Aggressive, less sociable and bred less

What did Harlow conclude about critical periods

A lack of mayernal comfort could result in dysfunctional futre attachments

A mother figure had to be introduced within 90 days of birth to form an attachment. Afyer this time period the psychological damage was irreversible

Outline the role of classical conditioning in attachment

Classical conditioning is learning through association. The child learns to associate the carer(neutral stimulus) with food(unconditioned stimulus). Over time when the carer feeds the child he/she becomes associated with food and becomes the conditioned stimulus which evokes pleasure.

This is how attachment forms

What’s a negative evaluation point of learning theory involving lorenzes geese

A range if animal studies show that animals done need for inorder to attach. Such as lorenzes geese who attached to his before they were fed and were able to maintain this attachment regardless of whoever fed them.

What is a counter evaluation point of human stidies

In human studies food doesn’t appear to be important as babi3s develop attachments even without food

Whats a negative evaluation evaluation point of learning theory involving external factors

Research into early attachment in infants suggests that processes such as reciprocity and international synchrony. Learning theory ignores this

What is positive reinforcement

When a positive consequence is given and it causes the behaviour to continue

E.g House points being given when you complete your homework. So you continue to complete your homework

What’s negative reinforcement

When a negative consequence is remkved to cause the behaviour to continue

E.g a teacher giving a student a detention for not doibg their homework. So in the future they do their homework

What is the primary drive baby’s are born with

Hunger - the need for food and therefore survival

What is a secondary drive

The attachment formed between the child and its carer due to the feeding it