A-Level Psychology: Attachment — Animal Studies (Lorenz and Harlow)

The animal studies are where the attachment topic's biology meets its theory. Lorenz's goslings and Harlow's rhesus monkeys each tested a claim about why young animals attach, and their findings are still used to argue for and against the main theories of human attachment. This set covers both studies in depth (its companion set covers learning theory, Bowlby, attachment types and deprivation).

The Lorenz questions cover the split-clutch procedure and what happened when the groups were mixed, the critical period shortly after hatching, and sexual imprinting — the peacock that courted giant tortoises. Evaluation centres on Guiton's chicks, whose attempts to mate with yellow washing-up gloves gave way to a preference for their own species, suggesting imprinting is more reversible than Lorenz believed, and on the difficulty of generalising from birds to human infants.

The Harlow questions cover the wire and cloth surrogate procedure, the monkeys' preference for the cloth mother even when the wire mother held the milk, the cloth mother as a safe base when the monkeys were frightened, the lasting effects on social, sexual and parenting behaviour, and the critical period of about 90 days for effective mothering. Evaluation covers the ethics and the cost-benefit debate, generalisation to humans, a confounding variable in the surrogates' design, and practical applications in social work and in zoos and breeding programmes.

Each explanation links the finding to the theoretical argument it supports — above all Harlow's challenge to learning theory's feeding account and Lorenz's support for Bowlby's critical period — which is how essay questions expect these studies to be used.

• Describe Lorenz's imprinting procedure, the critical period and sexual imprinting
• Evaluate Lorenz's research using Guiton's findings and the problem of generalising from birds
• Describe Harlow's wire and cloth surrogate procedure and its findings on contact comfort
• Outline the long-term effects of maternal deprivation in Harlow's monkeys and the 90-day critical period
• Evaluate Harlow's research: ethics, generalisation, a confounding variable and applications
• Explain how the animal studies challenge learning theory and support Bowlby

Practice material written by Zestly on attachment, following the AQA A-level Psychology (7182) topic list as an example: the animal studies of Lorenz and Harlow and what they show about attachment.