animal studies Flashcards
what is meant by animal studies of attachment
Animal studies are conducted on the basis that there was biological continuity between humans and animals, so what was true for animals would also be true for humans (more ethical to be performed on animals than humans)
What was Lorenz aim
to investigate the mechanisms of imprinting where the young follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet.
Procedure of Lorenz
He divided the number of goose eggs randomly into 2 groups:
1. half were replaced under the mother so that they first they would see when they hatched was their mother goose (control group)
2. other half were placed in an incubator and the first thing that they saw when they hatched was Lorenz (experimental group)
to test the effects of the above, he marked each group to distinguish them from each other, and then placed the 2 groups together. During this time, both their mother and Lorenz were present
Findings of Lorenz
The goslings quickly divided themselves:
-naturally hatched group followed their mother
-incubator raised goslings followed Lorenz
-incubator group showed no signs of recognition of their natural mother
-process of imprinting has a restricted time period = critical period. if the young birds were not exposed to a moving object during this early critical period -> animal will not imprint
-The goslings that imprinted on humans tried to mate with humans when they matured: sexual imprinting
AO3: Lorenz
str: research support
lim: dispute over characteristics
lim: humans
Lorenz str: research support
Guiton
-> leghorn chicks exposed to yellow rubber gloves for feeding them during the 1st few weeks became imprinted on the gloves
-supports view that young animals are not biologically predisposed to imprint on a specific type of object, but probably any moving object that is present during this critical window of development
-Guiton also found that this early imprinting was also linked to later sexual development as the chickens later tried to mate with the gloves
=imprinting is innate + has a specific purpose in development
=supports Lorenz
Lorenz lim: humans
ability to generalise the findings and conclusions from animals to humans
-the mammalian attachment system is much more complex than that of birds, e.g, in mammals, attachment is a two-way process, so it is not just the young that become attached to their mothers but also mammalian mammals show an emotional attachment to their young
=psychologists question the extent to which studies of non-humans can be generalised to human attachment
Lorenz lim: dispute over characteristics of imprinting
The accepted view of imprinting was that it was an irreversible process. Now it’s understood that imprinting is a more ‘plastic and forgiving mechanism’ (Hoffman)
Eg: Guiton found he could reverse the imprinting of chicken that initially tried to mate w the rubber gloves
after spending time w own species, they engaged in normal sexual behaviour w other chickens
= Imprinting may not be so different from any other kind of learning. Learning can also take place rapidly, with little conscious effort, and is also fairly reversible
What was harlows aim
To test the learning theory
- ‘cupboard love’ theory (attachments are formed primarily through food)
Harlows procedure
8 infant rhesus monkeys were reared with 2 wire model ‘mothers’:
1. plain wire mother
2. cloth covered mother
For 4 of the monkeys, the wire mother had milk bottle
For the other 4, the cloth mother had milk bottle
-the amount of time spent with each mother was recorded
-monkeys were also frightened to test for mother preference during stress by placing them in novel situations with novel objects
eg: noisemaking teddy bear
-Harlow and his colleagues continued to study the infant monkeys into adulthood
Harlows findings
-All 8 monkeys preferred contact with the towelling mother regardless of whether she produced milk. Spent most of their time w cloth mother.
-When frightened, all monkeys clung to cloth mother
-When playing w new objects, often kept one foot on cloth mother
=Monkeys have an innate, unlearned need for comfort, suggesting that attachment concerns emotional security more than food
=Contact comfort is associated with lower levels of stress and a willingness to explore, indicating emotional security
Long term:
Socially abnormal: froze or fled when approached by other monkeys
Sexually abnormal: didnt show normal mating behaviour or cradle own babies
Critical period: If they spent time w their monkey peers before 3 months old, they could recover
Having more than 6m w wire monkey was something they couldnt recover from
AO3: Harlow
lim: ethics
lim: confounding variable
lim: humans
str: human studies
Harlow lim: ethics
The study created lating emotional harm as the monkeys later found it difficult to form relationships w their peers.
Also showed many signs of distress i.e rocking back and forth, high levels of aggression towards other monkeys + self-mutilating behaviours
But can be justified as it has had a significant effect on our understanding of the process of attachments and has been used to better care for humans and infants
Harlow lim: humans
ability to generalise the findings and conclusions from animals to humans
Humans differ in important ways bc their behaviour is governed by concious decisions as our brain is more complex than that of a monkey
=psychologists question the extent to which studies of non-humans can be generalised to human attachment
Harlow lim:confounding variable
The two stimulus objects varied in more ways than being cloth-covered or not
The two heads were also different- confounding variable because it varied systematically with the independent variable.
Its possible the reason the infant monkey preferred one ‘mother’ to the other was because the cloth-covered mother had a more attractive head.
Therefore, the conclusions of this study lacked internal validity
= important in monitoring what counts as good science
