7. Animal Studies Of Attachment AO1 Flashcards
What did Lorenz study?
Imprinting
What was Lorenz’s procedure?
- He randomly divided 12 goose eggs
- Half were hatched with the mother goose in natural environment
- Half hatched in an incubator - the first moving object they saw was him
- then mixed together to see whom they would follow
What were Lorenz’s findings for the goslings?
The incubator group followed Lorenz and the other group followed the mother
What did Harlow study?
The importance of contact comfort
What did Lorenz identify?
Lorenz identified a critical period which imprinting needs to take place, a few hours after hatching, if imprinting did not occur within that time the chicks did not attach themselves to the mother figure
What was Harlow’s procedure?
He reared 16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
What were the two conditions Harlow used?
- Milk was dispensed by the plain wire ‘mother’
2. Milk was dispensed by cloth-covered ‘mother’
What did Harlow do as a further measure?
Observed the reactions of monkeys to more frightening situations
What did Harlow and his colleagues continue to do?
Study the monkeys who had been deprived of their real mother into adulthood
What were Harlow’s findings?
Baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one regardless of which dispensed milk
What do Harlow’s findings suggest?
That contact comfort is of more importance than food when it comes to attachment behaviour
What did Harlow’s monkeys do when they were frightened?
They sought comfort from the cloth mother
What was found about monkeys that have been deprived of their real mothers?
They suffered severe consequences: more aggressive, less sociable, neglect and sometimes kill their own offspring
