Psycholgy - Attachment

Give Bowlby’s definition of attachment

A lasting psychological connectedness between human beings (usually reciprocal)

Explain Lorenz’s experiment (1935)

Lorenz randomly divided goose eggs and let some hatch with their mother and others in an incubator in front of him.

What were Lorenz’s findings in his 1935 experiment?

Stayed constant even when mixed up:

• Hatched naturally = followed mother

• Hatched in incubator = followed Lorenz

Imprinting had to occur within 25 hours or it would never

Imprinting was irreversible

If a bird imprinted on a human, they would try mate with a human later on in life (sexual imprinting)

Strengths of Lorenz’s study

Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) support Lorenz’s idea of imprinting by using moving shapes and they found that chicks followed the first one they saw more closely

Weaknesses of Lorenz’s study

Research from Guiton et al (1966) found that with experience, sexual imprinting could be reversed (on a rubber glove in this case) meaning it wasn’t as permanent as Lorenz thought.

Also cannot generalise to humans as mammals are much more complex than chicks.

Strengths of Harlow’s study

Has real world application as it helped social workers understand why some adults are poor parents - White et al (2023)

Also helped make zoos increase living standards for infant primates

What did Harlow’s research (1958) involve?

Harlow observed 16 new born Rhesus monkeys. They were split between two conditions: one where milk was dispensed by a wire mother and one where the milk was dispensed by a cloth mother. The opposite mother was still present. They were then exposed to different stimulus.

What were Harlow’s (1958) findings?

Baby monkeys cuddled the soft mother when scared in both conditions when frightened proving contact comfort was more important than food in relation to contact comfort. Soft Mother provided a a safe base for exploration (wire mother did not). Both fake mothers lead to the children being dysfunctional, the wire one more so. Surrogate mother had to be introduced within 90 days or attachment would not happen.

Weaknesses of Harlow’s research

Can generalise better than birds but still not suitable for generalising to humans.

Ethical issues of tormenting the monkeys.

What is the learning theory of attachment, Dollard and Miller (1950)

They say attachment is a learned behaviour acquired through classical and operant conditioning (aka cupboard love theory as it emphasises importance of caregiver as food source)

What is classical conditioning?

Learning to associate two stimuli together so that we begin to respond to one as we do to the other.

Give an example of classical conditioning in regards to attachment

• Food = unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

• Caregiver = neutral stimulus (NS) producing neutral response (NR)

• Being fed and feeling pleasure in that is innate = unconditioned response (UCR)

• Overtime, caregiver becomes associated with food

• Neutral stimulus (NS) becomes conditioned stimulus (CS)

• Conditioned stimulus (CS) produces conditioned response (CR)

• Conditioned response = love

What is operant conditioning?

Positive Reinforcement - desired behaviour is rewarded therefore more likely to be repeated

Negative Reinforcement- removal of negative stimuli therefore behaviour is likely to be repeated

Punishment - bad behaviour results in negative stimuli or removal of something positive therefore less likely to be repeated

Reinforcement is a two-way process. EG baby is reinforced for crying, caregiver reinforced by removing unpleasant sound

Explain attachment as a secondary drive?

Learning theory draws on drive reduction and as hunger is a primary drive then attachment comes as a secondary drive when association occurs

What is Bowlby’s monotropic (and evolutionary) theory?