Animal studies Flashcards
What are the two animal studies?
1) Lorenz (Geese)
2) Harlow (Monkey)
AO1: Lorenz
- Aim
- Method
- Procedure
- Findings
- Conclusion
To investigate the effect of imprinting on goslings.
Lorenz randomly divided a group of goose eggs. Half the eggs were hatched with their mother in their natural environment (control group). The other half was hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz (experimental group). Lorenz recorded the behaviour of the gosling - who they imprinted on. Once they hatched the goslings were mixed up and Lorenz observed who they followed. He varied the time between birth and seeing the first moving object to measure the critical period of imprinting.
He found that the group where the gosling saw Lorenz first imprinted and followed him whereas the group hatched with the mother imprinted and followed her. He found that there was a critical period of 12-17 hours after hatching where imprinting needs to take place. He suggested if imprinting doesn’t occur then they will not attach themselves to a mother figure. In addition the gosling who imprinted onto humans would, as adult birds, attempt to mate with humans
Gosling imprint on the first moving object they see and there is a specific time period for this to open otherwise they will not imprint at all.
What are the evaluations for Lorenz? (3)
1) Practical applications
2) Animal bias
3) Researcher bias
AO3: Lorenz - Practical applications
Lorenz’s research into the effects of imprinting on attachment can be praised for having practical applications. The principles of the theory that gosling had a 12-17 hour critical period where they had to imprint or they would not imprint at all shows the importance of the critical period in future relationships. Psychologists can use this information to promote early interaction between parents and infant to hopefully reduce any later issues. Therefore Lorenz’s research into attachment is an important part of applied psychology as it allows us to understand both animal and human attachments.
AO3: Lorenz - Animal bias
Lorenz’s research of imprinting on attachment can be criticised for animal bias as the research was conducted on animals, gosling. This is a problem as human attachment behaviour may be more complex than animal attachment behaviour as humans have more sophisticated emotions toward their offspring than birds. For example, in humans, attachment is a two way process where it’s not just the young who attaches to their mother but the mother grows an emotional attachment to their young. This makes it difficult to extrapolate the findings of attachment onto humans limiting the extent the Lorenz’s research can be used to explain human attachments.
AO3: Lorenz - Researcher bias
Lorenz’s research into attachments can be criticised for researcher bias. This is because Lorenz’s recorded his own observations of birds and could have only included findings that would support his theory of imprinting and ignored findings such as the gosling who didn’t imprint on him. This lowers the internal validity of the research as it may not be measuring the true effects of imprinting on attachment.
AO1: Harlow
- Aim
- Method
- Procedure
- Findings
- Conclusion
The aim was to investigate whether food or comfort was out important in forming attachments.
16 baby rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth and brought up in cages. The cages had surrogate mothers - a wired mother with milk (provides food) and a cloth mother with no milk (provides comfort). They recorded which mother the monkeys spent the longest time with. The monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to see which mother they went to when distressed. The long term effects were recorded such as sociability and relationships to future offspring.
They found monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother. They found when frightened the monkeys preferred the cloth mother. The monkeys in later life had emotional damage and were timid, more easily bullied had difficulty mating and females were inadequate mothers when they were older.
In conclusion contact comfort is the most important factor in forming an attachment,
What are the evaluations for Harlow?
- PEEL
- PEEL
- PEEL + counter argument
1) Practical applications
2) Animal bias
3) Ethical issues + benefits outweigh
AO3: Harlow - Practical applications
Harlow’s research into forming attachment can be praised fro having practical applications. The principles of the theory that the most important factor of forming attachments is contact comfort has been used in the real world to emphasise that child rearing needs to go beyond caring for a child’s physical needs. This can be used by professionals such as clinical staff and social workers to identify children who at risk of having a lack of bonding experience to prevent long term damage. Therefore Harlow’s research into attachment is an important part of applied psychology.
AO3: Harlow - Animal bias
Harlow’s research into attachment can be criticised for animal bias as the research was conducted on rhesus monkeys. Human attachment behaviour may be more complex than animal attachment behaviour as humans have more sophisticated emotions towards their offspring than animals. Therefore it is difficult to extrapolate the findings of Harlow’s research on attachment to humans.
AO3: Harlow - Ethical issues
A problem with Harlow’s research into attachment is that it raises ethical issues as the monkeys were inflicted with harm and distress with no immediate benefits to their wellbeing. The monkeys suffered greatly from Harlow’s procedure of being frightened by making a loud frightening noise. This later led to emotional/social issues which even led to death such as difficulty forming relationships and being inadequate mothers in later life. Limiting the extent Harlow’s research can be used in attachment to animals.
However, Harlow agued that the importance of findings outweighed the distress the monkeys has because at that time it was believed that attachment was due to physical factors (food) rather than emotional care. Furthermore, Harlow’s research has been used to create important practical applications.
