Animal Studies Flashcards
What are the 2 animal studies for attachment???
Lorenz and Harlow
What is imprinting for Lorenz study??
Describes the process by which young animals follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object they meet
Has consequences for short term survival and long term forming internal templates for later relationships
Imprinting occurs without feeding and if no attachment formed in 33 hours then unlikely attachment will develop
Imprinting provides animals with info on who they are and how they will behaviour and determine who they find attractive when in adulthood
What was the aim of Lorenzos study??
Investigate the mechanism of imprinting
What as the procedure of Lorenz???
12 eggs were used in the study and Lorenz split them into half, one half was hatched naturally with mother and one half hatched in an incubator with Lorenz marking sure he was the first moving object the goslings saw. He then recorded their behaviour
Lorenz marked out all goslings so could determine whether they were from each batch and placed them under a box and when the box was removed and the following behaviour was the recorded
What were the qualative results of Lorenz???
- immediately after birth the naturally hatched eggs followed their mother and the incubator hatched eggs followed Lorenz
- when released time the upturned big the naturally hatched goslings went I their mother and the incubator goslings went to Lorenz showing mobbing with natural mother and proved bonds to be irreversible.
- reported I how goslings imprinted into humans would as matured adult birds attempt to mate with humans
What were the quantive findings of Lorenz??
- imprinting would only occur with a brief set time period of between 4 and 25 hours after hatching
- the imprinting and following must have lasted for at least 10 mins to fully imprint
What was the conclusions of Lorenz study???
Imprinting being irreversible suggests it is an innate process that is biologically triggered rather than learnt
The concept of a critical period for forming attachments as showing in this study has been carried over to theories of human attachment and the fact that the adult geese imprinted on humans later tries to mate with humans suggests that imprinting is important for later relationships as well for short term survival
What are the strengths of lorenz study??
- practical applications
- highly reliable
- ecological validity
What are the limitations to Lorenz study??
- generalisability
- unethical
What was Harlows study on??
Rhesus monkeys who were highly dependent on their mothers for nutrition, protection, comfort and socialisation.
What was the aim of Harlows study??
Wanted to investigate whether attachment were primarily formed through food or through comfort
What was the procedure of Harlows study???
16 Rhesus Monkeys were separated from their mothers immediately after birth and placed in individual cages with access to two surrogate mothers, one made of wire and one covered in cloth. They were studied for 105 days
16 monkeys and : conditions
1) wire mother with milk and cloth mother without milk
2) wire mother without milk and cloth mother with milk
3) cloth mother with milk
4) wire mother with milk
Monkeys were frightened with a loud noise and a mechanical robot to test mother preference during stress
They were also placed in larger cage with different objects to test their degree of exploration with each mother
Harlow measured amount of time spent with each mother and time feeding
What were the qualitiatve findings for Harlow??
- monkeys preferred contact with cloth mother when given choose regardless whether she produced milk or not and the would only go to wire mother if hungry
- monkeys with only wire mother had diarrhoea a sign of stress
- when frightened the monkeys took refuge to cloth mother in conditions she was available
- when in larger cage the monkeys would explore more when the cloth mother was present and would return to her more frequently
- effects were ling lasting and socially abnormal around other monkeys and were also sexually abnormal and did not display normal mating behaviour or cradle own babies
What were the quantative findings to Harlows study???
- infants spent up to 15 hours a day with the cloth mother and 1 hours a day with wire mother
- if time spent isolated with surrogate mothers was less than 3 mothers other monkeys could them resume some normality
What is maternal deprivation for Harlows study??
The emotional band intellectual consequences of separation of mother and child
