Animal Studies

Question 1

What animal was studied in Lorenz’s research?

Answer 1

Geese

Question 2

What did Lorenz do to the set of goose eggs?

Answer 2

He randomly divided them into 2 groups.

Question 3

Describe the where each set of goose eggs hatched.

Answer 3

1st set - Hatched in an incubator
2nd set - Hatched with their mother

Question 4

For each set of eggs, state who the first moving object the geese saw was.

Answer 4

Hatched with their mother - saw the mother first.
Hatched in the incubator - saw Lorenz first.

Question 5

What did the group of geese that hatched in front of Lorenz do?

Answer 5

They followed him around everywhere.

Question 6

What did the group of geese that hatched in front of their mother do?

Answer 6

They followed her everywhere.

Question 7

Why did Lorenz try to mix up the groups after they had hatched?
What did he find?

Answer 7

He wanted to see whether the geese would still know who to follow. They all still followed the first thing they had imprinted on.

Question 8

What is imprinting?

Answer 8

Where species that are mobile from birth attach to the first moving object they see.

Question 9

What is the critical period?

Answer 9

The timeframe in which imprinting must take place so an attachment to the primary caregiver can form.

Question 10

What animal did Harlow study?

Answer 10

Monkeys

Question 11

Why did Harlow decide to carry out his research?

Answer 11

He observed that animals in bare cages often died whereas animals in comfortable cages survived.

Question 12

How many monkeys were used in Harlow’s study?

Answer 12

16

Question 13

Describe what both ‘mothers’ in Harlow’s study looked like?

Answer 13

They were both made of wire.
One of the wire monkeys was covered in cloth.

Question 14

What was dispensed from both of the ‘mothers’?

Answer 14

Milk

Question 15

Which of the mothers did Harlow prefer?
What does this demonstrate about the importance of comfort and attachment behaviours?

Answer 15

They preferred the cloth mothers.
This shows that contact comfort is more important than food when it comes to attachment behaviours

Question 16

The monkeys were observed into adulthood. Explain what observers saw as a result of maternal deprivation experienced by the monkeys.

Answer 16

The monkeys became more aggressive and were neglectful towards their own children

Question 17

Explain the strength of there being research support for imprinting.
Use the example of the chicks who were exposed to a range of moving shapes. What did these chicks do?
Whose study does this support?

Answer 17

Chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved, such as a triangle with a rectangle in front of it. A range of shape combinations were then moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely. This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical period, as predicted by Lorenz.

Question 18

Explain the strength of there being real world applications from Harlow’s research.
Use the example of how clinical psychologists and social workers can understand the impacts of a lack of bonding with parents.
Use another example of us now understanding the importance of keeping baby monkeys with their mothers in zoos.

Answer 18

For example, it has helped clinical psychologists and social workers to understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development, which allows them to intervene and prevent poor outcomes. We also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild. This means the value of Harlow’s research is not just theoretical but also practical.

Question 19

Explain the limitation of Lorenz and Harlow’s studies lacking generalisability to humans.
Use the example of human attachment being much more complex than geese.
Use the example of human brains being more complex than monkeys.

Answer 19

For example, attachment in humans is much more complex than in geese. In mammals, both the mother and baby attach to each other. In Harlow’s study, monkeys were used, which are more similar to humans than birds, but human brains and attachment processes are still much more complex than monkeys. This means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans.

Question 20

Explain the limitation of ethical issues surrounding Lorenz and Harlow’s studies.
Use the example of maternal deprivation in Harlow’s study and its effects.
Use the example of geese being removed from their mothers during critical period in Lorenz’s study.

Answer 20

The monkeys in Harlow’s study experienced maternal deprivation, meaning that they were removed from the comfort and care of their natural mother. This led to severe distress in the monkeys, and has even led to the monkeys neglecting and killing their own babies in the future. In Lorenz’s study, the baby geese were removed from their mother during the critical period, so imprinting to their real mother couldn’t occur as they had already imprinted on Lorenz. This therefore means that its unethical to disrupt animal attachments as it could lead to death of animals and ruin their attachments with their mothers.