Animal Studies Flashcards
What are the two researchers for animal studies of attachment?
Lorenz and Harlow
What was Lorenz’s aim?
Lorenz aimed to investigate the role of imprinting in the formation of attachments
What was Lorenz’s procedure?
- took a clutch of gosling eggs
- divided them into two groups
- one left with birth mother, other in incubator
- goslings imprinted on Lorenz, recognised him as their birth mother
- hatched infront of birth mother, they followed her
What was Lorenz’s findings?
found that imprinting is restricted to a definite time called the critical period
What is the critical period?
a sensitive time frame for attachment
What was Lorenz’s conclusion?
- imprinting is irreversible and long lasting, a process which effects sexual mate choices
- imprinting is similar to attachment
Define imprinting
The innate readiness to bond with the first moving object after birth
What was Harlow’s aim?
Aimed to investigate whether attachment was based upon comfort as opposed to feeding
What was Harlow’s procedure?
- 8 rhesus monkeys studied for 165 days
- two wire mothers: one wrapped in cloth, one dispensed milk
- Time measurements taken for how long monkeys spent with the mother
What was the 2 conditions for Harlow’s procedure?
- For 4 monkeys, the cloth mother dispensed the milk
- For other 4 monkeys the wired mother dispensed milk
What were Harlow’s findings?
- All 8 monkey’s spent most time with cloth mother
- Monkeys who were fed by wire mother spent short time getting milk then returning to cloth mother
When the monkeys were frightened, what happened?
They clung to the cloth mother
What did Harlow observed when the monkeys were playing with new objects?
Kept 1 foot on the cloth mother for reassurance
What can be concluded from the findings of Harlow’s study?
Monkeys do not develop attachment to those who feed them but person offering them comfort
What happened to the monkeys later on in life?
- socially abnormal behaviour
- abnormal mating behaviour
What did Harlow conclude about the critical period?
after critical period damage is irreversible
If the monkeys were returned before they reached 6 months what happened?
They were fine and grew normally
What was the confounding variable in Harlow’s study? (A03)
- Used different heads for mother
- monkeys may have used more attractive head
- lack internal validity
A03 - Strength from research support
- Guiton demonstrated that leghorn chicks, exposed to yellow rubber gloves, while being fed during their first few weeks, became attached to glove
- Supports view that young animals are not born with predisposition to imprint on a specific type of object but any moving object presented at critical window of development
- Chicks tried to mate with gloves, show that imprinting linked to later reproductive behaviour
- Guitons findings support Lorenz
A03 - Disputes over imprinting
- Imprinting seen as irreversible
- However, now seen as ‘plastic’ and ‘forgiving mechanism’ (Hoffman)
- Guiton found that he could reverse imprinting on chickens who tried to mate with glove
- After spending time with own species they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour
- Imprinting not very different from other kinds of learning
A03 - Generalisability (Harlow)
- Cannot be generalised to humans
- Whilst monkeys are similar to humans there is a wide range of differences physically and in our behaviours and emotions.
- Humans much more complex
- Therefore issues with reliability of Harlows research as an explanation for human attachment
