Animal Studies- Harlows’s Study Of Monkeys

Question 1

Aim of Harlow’s study of monkeys

Answer 1

-monkeys used to look at the formation of early bonds between non-human parents and their offspring, whether maternally deprived monkeys will favour comfort or food

Question 2

Procedure of harlows monkey study

Answer 2

-maternally deprived monkeys taken from their mother at birth and given no motherly care
-offered a choice of cloth(comfort) mother or wire mother with feeder

Question 3

Findings of harlows monkey study

Answer 3

-monkeys spent on average 18hrs on cloth and one hour on wire mother
-when frightened ran to cloth mother
-showed bizarre behaviour eg rocking compulsively
-issues in adulthood eg with wire mother we’re highly dysfunctional and soft mother did not develop normal social behaviour
-as mothers the monkeys neglected their young and even killed them

Question 4

What is critical period and what is it for monkeys

Answer 4

The time frame in which an attachment needs to be formed to prevent negative consequences, 90 days for monkeys

Question 5

Expand on limitation that study has low internal validity

Answer 5

-severe conditions monkeys were kept in eg cages means behaviour may not reflect natural as environment does not
-may have influenced their behaviour and caused bizarre behaviour

Question 6

Expand on limitation that study lacks generalisability to humans

Answer 6

-although we share some similarities, the human brain and behaviour is more complex as are the emotions involved in attachment formation
-study may tell us very little about human attachment formation as more complex

Question 7

Expand on strength that the study has theoretic value

Answer 7

-profound effect on our understanding of infant-caregiver attachment, found comfort more important that food in forming attachment
-better understanding of early attachment on later relationships

Question 8

Expand on strength that study has practical value

Answer 8

-application to a range of dif contexts eg social workers aware of risk factors of child neglect and abuse, applied to monkey breeding in the wild-allow early attachments to form
-real world application

Question 9

Aim of Lorenz’s study

Answer 9

To investigate imprinting in goslings

Question 10

Procedure of Lorenz’s study

Answer 10

-randomly allocated a clutch of goose eggs, half hatched with mother and half placed in an incubator saw him first and marked which was which
-mixed goslings up and observed their behaviour

Question 11

Findings of Lorenz’s study

Answer 11

-found geese followed who they saw first (incubator-Lorenz, mother-mother), called this imprinting with a critical period of a few hours
-important that species are mobile from birth as aids survival
-if no figure seen within critical period=no attachment formed

Question 12

Critical period in geese

Answer 12

A few hours