Animal Studies Flashcards
What was the procedure and findings of Harlows research?
Procedure = Harlow (1958) reared 16 monkeys with 16 wire model mothers. In one condition , the mother was a plain wired monkey whereas the other was a clothed covered mother.
Findings = The baby monkeys prefered the cloth covered monkey and sought comfort from it regardless of if it dispensed milk
What was Lorenz’s procedure and findings
Procedure = He randomly divided goose eggs and half were hatched with the mother goose whereas the other half hatched in an incubator
Findings = The incubator group imprinted on Lorenz showing that bird species imprint on the first moving object they see
Evaluate Lorenz research
Strength - research support = Regolin experimented on chicks and found the same results that the chicks followed the object that looked like the original object they had seen very closely
Limitations- generalisability to humans. It is difficult to generalise human attachment to birds as ours is more complex and is a two way attachment
Evaluate harlows research
Strength - real world applications. Harlows research can help psychologists understand that a lack of bonding may cause a risk factor in child development.
Limitations - Generalisibilty to humans, monekys and humans have different attachments behaviours due to the different brain complexities
Limitations - ethical issues
Outline what Harlow discovered about maternal deprivation
- they found monkeys who had been reared to the plain wire monkeys were dysfunctional and were more aggressive, breeding less and being unskilled at mating.
What critical period did Harlow discover?
Harlow found a mother figure had to be introduced within 90 days for an attachment to form
What did Lorenz discover about sexual imprinting
- lorenz did more research and found that if birds imprinted on a human, they later went to display courtship behaviours towards humans
What did Lorenz discover about the critical period of imprinting
- imprinting must occur within the few hours after birth
