Animal studies Flashcards
Who was heavily influenced by Lorenz and Harlow’s work?
John Bowlby
What assumption are animal studies based on?
There is a biological continuity between animals and humans, so what is true for animals is also true for humans
What specific behaviour did Lorenz study?
Imprinting
Define imprinting
A form of attachment where offspring follow the first large moving object they see
What animal did Lorenz use in his study?
Greylag geese
What did Lorenz record about the behaviour of the baby geese?
Those who had imprinted on him followed him around in the same way as those who had imprinted on their mother followed her around
What did Lorenz note about time and imprinting?
It would only occur within a short time period of between 4 and 25 hours after hatching
What did Lorenz discover about the continuity of the relationships of the geese?
When they sexually matured, the geese that had imprinted on Lorenz made sexual advances on humans
What is one issue with animal studies?
Extrapolation: Can the behaviour of geese/monkeys be used to explain the behaviour of humans?
What was the focus of Harlow’s study?
To test the learning theory explanation of attachment
What animal did Harlow use in his study?
Rhesus monkeys
What were the four conditions of Harlow’s experiment?
A wire mother producing milk and a towelling mother producing no milk; a towelling mother producing milk and a wire mother producing no milk; a wire mother producing milk; a towelling mother producing milk
What three things did Harlow measure?
The amount of time spent with each mother, a stress test to see mother preference and degree of exploration
What did Harlow find?
In times of stress the towelling mother was preferred, and even when she didn’t produce milk the monkeys spent more time with her. Those who didn’t have a towelling mother showed signs of stress e.g. diarrhoea and showed less degree of exploration
What further research did Harlow conduct?
He observed the baby monkeys’ adult behaviour which included self-harming, and then their sexual behaviour, which was non-existent (used a rape rack to impregnate them), and their parenting behaviour which was often violent and resulted in the baby’s death
