Animal studies

Question 1

Lorenz (procedure)

Answer 1

• Lorenz set up a classic experiment, in which he took a cluster of goose eggs and split them in half.
• Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment.
• Half the eggs were hatched in an incubator where the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz.

Question 2

Lorenz (findings)

Answer 2

• The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere, whereas the control group followed followed the mother.
• When the 2 groups were mixed together the control group went to the mother, and the experimental group went to Lorenz.
• This is called imprinting- the goose attached to the first moving object they saw (time to imprint can be as brief as few hours).

Question 3

Lorenz- sexual imprinting.

Answer 3

• Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult male preferences.
• He observed that if a bird imprinted on a human they would often display courtship behaviour towards humans.

Question 4

Harlow’s research

Answer 4

• Harlow observed that new born rhesus monkey’s kept in a bare cage usually died, but that they usually survived if given something soft like a cloth to cuddle.

Question 5

Harlow (procedure)

Answer 5

Harlow tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother.
- In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model mothers.
- In one condition milk was dispensed from the plain wire mother, whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by a cloth covered mother.

Question 6

Harlow (findings)

Answer 6

• It was found that the baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk.
• This showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkey than food when it came to attachment behaviour.

Question 7

Lorenz evaluation

Answer 7

1. Not generalisable behaviours to humans.
2. Ethical issues- taking the goose away from their mothers- may lead to maternal deprivation/ consequences in the long run.

Question 8

Harlow evaluation

Answer 8

1. Theoretical value= allowed psychologists to understand how attachments work (comfort rather than comfort).
2. Ethical issues- physical and psychological damage to the monkeys (permanent damage).