animal studies Flashcards
what is animal studies ?
We study animals because some animals have a similar genetic makeup to humans. It is also unethical to use humans. Ethology is the study of animal behaviour
describe the procedure of Lorenz research
Imprinting : When bird species attach to and follow around the first moving object they see.
- Divided goose eggs into 2
- Half hatched with their mother (control group) in a natural environment. Half hatched in an incubator (experimental group) where the first thing they saw was Lorenz.
what are the findings of Lorenz study?
The control group followed the mother around and the experimental group followed Lorenz around. He also identified a critical period where it needs to be done in the first few hours otherwise they will not attach.
describe the procedure of Harlows research
Two types of surrogate mothers were constructed
A harsh wire mother which supplied food
A soft towelling mother which supplied comfort
what are the findings of Harlows study
- Monkeys preferred contact with the towelling mother when given a choice of surrogate mother
- Regardless of whether she produced milk; they even stretched across to the wire mother to feed while still clinging to the towelling mother.
- He concluded that there was a critical period of 90 days in which a mother needed to be introduced in order for an attachment to form
what happened to the maternally deprived monkeys as adults
Harlow followed the mothers into adulthood. Those who had not formed attachment (raised by wire monkeys) showed clear signs of abnormal functioning. They were more aggressive, less sociable, bred less often, unskilled in mating. They neglected their young, even attacking and killing them in some cases.
evaluation: weakness of Lorenz study = challenging research
Guitan et al found that chickens that imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults (as Lorenz predicted) but in the end they found that with experience, they eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens.
This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not as permanent as Lornez believed.
evaluation: weakness of Lorenz study = cannot generalise findings
Birds (geese) are not representative of the target population therefore attachment systems in mammals and humans might be different. E.g mammals show more emotional attachment than birds.
This suggests that we are not about to generalise his findings to humans
evaluation: weakness of Harlows research = very unethical
The monkey’s suffered greatly in this experiment. Seperation of baby monkey’s causes stress (protection from harm) and also long term harm as he continued to study the effects into adulthood.
The clear disregard for any ethical issues could mean it is unjustified to use the research
evaluation: strength of Harlows study = good real life applications
This research really helped people to understand the impact of neglect and abuse and the importance of understanding this. We now understand the importance of proper attachment figures for babies and children.
This suggests this research has helped us care more appropriately for attachment and children.
