animal studies

Question 1

Lorenz’s Geese : AIM

Answer 1

to investigate how attachments form in geese

Question 2

Lorenz’s Geese : PROCEDURE

Answer 2

• took a large clutch of goose eggs
• placed half of the eggs with a goose mother
• other half were put in an incubator, the first moving object they would see would be Lorenz

Question 3

Lorenz’s Geese : FINDINGS

Answer 3

• when the geese hatched Lorenz imitated a mother goose’s quacking sounds
• the young birds regarded him as their mother and hollowed him
• the mother group followed their mother goose
• when mixed together the two groups separated to go to their ‘mother’ = IMPRINTING
• imprinting = where species that are mobile from birth attach to the first moving object they see

Question 4

Lorenz’s Geese : CONCLUSION

Answer 4

• imprinting has a critical period
• strongest responses occurred between 12 and 17 hours
• after 32 hours the response was unlikely to occur at all
• once imprinting has occurred it cannot be reversed

Question 5

Harlow’s Monkeys : AIM

Answer 5

to investigate whether food or comfort was more important in forming a bond in moneys

Question 6

Harlow’s Monkeys : PROCEDURE

Answer 6

• reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’, one was covered in cloth
• 1st condition = the wire mother dispensed milk
• 2nd condition = the cloth mother dispensed milk

Question 7

Harlow’s Monkeys : FINDINGS

Answer 7

• the monkeys preferred the cloth monkey to the wire one
• when they frightened the monkeys they ran to the cloth mother even though it didn’t dispense milk
• the monkeys showed dysfunctional behaviours when introduced to other monkeys
• they were : aggressive and less sociable
• they struggled with mating and some killed their own offspring

Question 8

Harlow’s Monkeys : CONCLUSION

Answer 8

• attachment is more concerned with warmth and emotional security than food
• early deprivation of a real comforting mother leads to irreversible damage

Question 9

evaluation of animal studies

Answer 9

real world application
generalisability
critical or sensitive?

Question 10

real world application : EVALUATION OF ANIMAL STUDIES

Answer 10

• Harlow’s research has good practical application to society
• e.g. social work, we can now understand how important it is for a baby to be placed with adopting families as early as possible so they can attach securely

Question 11

generalisability : EVALUATION OF ANIMAL STUDIES

Answer 11

• it is difficult to generalise findings from animals to humans
• attachment in humans may be different to attachments animals form as human babies are more defenceless when born and need a higher degree of care than monkeys

Question 12

critical or sensitive? : EVALUATION OF ANIMAL STUDIES

Answer 12

Sluckin
- conducted research with ducklings and successfully imprinted them onto himself
- he kept one duckling in isolation for 5 days
- that duckling was unable to imprint
- rather than a critical period there was a sensitive period when imprinting was best to occur but attachments could still be formed later