Animal Studies In Attachment Flashcards
What behaviour was Lorenz interested in
Behaviour of imprinting
What is imprinting
Where an offspring will follow the first moving object they see once born
What did Lorenz hypothesised
that if baby animals can imprint after such a short space of time then attachment must be innate
Lorenz procedure
randomly split a clutch of goose eggs into two groups
-one with mother (the control group)
- One group was placed in an incubator (the experimental group)
Incubator eggs - first thing Lorenz
Control group - first thing mother
All gosling then mixed up tp observe behaviour
Findings of Lorenz gosling
Gosling from control group - followed mother
Gosling from experimental group - followed Lorenz (imprinted)
Identified critical period for imprinting to occur
- between 13 and 16 hours after hatching
Research support of Lorenz study
Guitpn used yellow rubber gloves to cause imprinting of chicks
- suggests animals are not born with a predisposition to imprint onto a specific species but to anything moving during critical period
Limitations of Lorenz study
Cannot be generalise to humans
- animals and people have different emotional intelligence
- attachment in humans is a two way process where as birds can attach to inaminate objects suggesting it is a one way relationship
Strength of harlows research - real world application
- understanding that a lack of parental bonding and nurture can have detrimental effect on child’s development
- so interventions can be it int place to prevent long term consequences
- animal care an also be improved
Strength of Lorenz study - practical application
Has influenced areas such as developmental psychology
- Lorenz suggest imprinting is irreversible so controlled by biological factors which led to psychologist developing studied theories of attachment
- this had good practical application as attachment theory has influenced the way child care is administered
Lorenz research evidence - limitation
Other reaseach has found imprinting is changeable and not permanent
- one study found chickens that had imprinted onto a rubber glove and tired to mate wiht the glove were reversed after spending more time with own species
- imprinting more complex an similar to learning then a form of attachment
`what did harlows experiment focus on
His experiment of rhesus monkeys do used on
- maternal separation
- dependency needs
- Social isolation
Procedure of rhesus monkeys
two fake wire mothers were created
- one mother was covered in cloth but did not dispense milk
- on mother was a bare wire with no padding and did dispense milk
Eight reheats monkeys were exposed to two monkeys over 165 days
Finding of rhesus monkeys
All monkeys spent majority time with cloth mother
Only went to wire mother when ending then returned to cloth mother
When scared or playing/investigating all monkeys held onto cloth monkey
This suggest contact and comfort are how attachment is formed not through feeding
Harlows long term study on rhesus monkeys
he observed the monkey into adulthood to investigate maternal deprivation
he found all monkeys were dysfunctional
- more aggressive
- less sociable
- unskilled at mating
- attacked ther offspring
Harlow suggested a critical period from his long term study what was this
- monkeys who spent time socialising with other monkeys before age of 3 months showed behaviour could be reversed
-monkeys who spent more then 6 moths with only wire mothers never recovered
What does Harlow experiment of rhesus monkeys contradict
Contradict learning theory of attachment
- because monkeys spent more time wiht cloth mother even when not being fed forms hese
- learning theory = association between caregiver and food
- harlows evidence shows they did not form attachment based on food but prefer contact comfort
Limitation of harlows research - generalisation
Cannot be generalised
- while no key are similar to humans there is woe variety of differences in physical, emotions and bahvours
Human are more complex then monkeys
Limitation of harlows experiment - ethical issues
Harlows research caused severe ad lasting damage to animals
- not ethical
- but do the findings outweighs the effects on the monkey
