Animal Studies: Konrad Lorenz + Harry Harlow Flashcards
Who was Konrad Lorenz and what did he do during the early part of the 20th century?
He was an ethologist, (study of animal behaviour), and was studying animal attachments, he was studying the ‘imprinting’ in geese.
What did Lorenz first report on in 1952?
He first noticed that birds imprint on other animals when he was given a duck egg as a child, and the chick followed him when it hatched.
What was the method to the study that Lorenz set up?
- took a clutch of goose eggs and hatched them, placing half in an incubator and half with their biological mother.
- he made sure the half of goslings in incubator saw him first, and the ones with their mother seen her first.
What was the result from Lorenz’s experiment?
The goslings who saw him first would follow him constantly, swim behind him in his lake and treated him in all ways like their mother.
How did Lorenz test the strength of the imprinting of the goslings?
By putting both the incubator chicks and those born with their mother in a pen, with him at one end and the mother at the other. When the pen opened, the geese hatched with Lorenz ran to him and the geese born with mother ran to her.
What was the ‘critical period’ proposed by Lorenz?
This is if the imprinting doesn’t occur during the first few hours after birth, the gosling may not attach at all.
What was the alternative finding that Lorenz found regarding mating?
He found that if birds imprint on humans, they may grow up to display mating behaviour towards them.
In support to Lorenz’s alternative finding what was the case he reported on?
He described a case where a peacock was hatched by giant tortoises, and it grew up to show mating behaviour towards them.
What did Guiton find that supports Lorenz’s alternative finding?
Found that chicks imprint on yellow gloves, as they saw those first, which suggests birds can imprint on anything moving.
What is the issue with Lorenz’s experiment regarding generalisation?
The gosling imprinting cannot be applied to human’s attachment as the two systems are very different.
Mammalian system is far more complex and is often a two-way process, while with birds it’s a one way process.
How did Harry Harlow’s studying animal behaviour differ from Lorenz’s?
He studied it very scientifically through lab experiments.
What did Harry Harlow find regarding rhesus monkeys? ( 2 things)
He found that baby monkeys would hug the towels placed at the bottom of their cages for comfort and there seemed to be a survival benefit to this.
The monkeys without towelling were more likely to die.
What did the special cage for the orphaned rhesus monkeys include in Harlow’s (1958) experiment?
He placed two-wire models of a rhesus monkey’s mother. One model was made of wire and the other made of cloth, much like the mother’s fur.
They each were a condition and the wire model provided food.
What was the result from the special cage study, experimented by Harlow (1958)?
Baby monkeys spent more time on the cloth covered model and sought comfort whenever they were frightened by the noise the model had made.
What did Harlow find out following up from his previous results? (1959)
He found that the monkeys spend up to 22 hours on the clothed model, even without food, and only would leave and go to the wired model for food, only to return immediately after.
What do the findings of Harlow suggest about food/comfort?
The studies suggest comfort is more important than food, indicating it’s how an adult looks after a baby that is important regarding the development of attachment.
What were the three variation of monkey Harlow tracked throughout life, regarding the development of attachment into adulthood?
Monkeys raised by biological mothers
Monkeys raises with a cloth covered mother
Monkeys raised with no comfort at all. ( wire mother)
What were the results from Harlow’s tracking of monkeys through to their adulthood? ( orphan/ biological mothers)
Monkeys raised with biological mothers were raised normally .
Orphan monkeys showed higher levels of aggression + were less sociable, some of which growing to be bad parents, neglecting their babies and even attacking/killing them.
What do the findings from Harlow studying the development of attachment in monkeys through to their adulthood suggest?
That having a biological mother (monkey) is essential in attachment development, and that comfort isn’t enough to replace a real mother.
What was the length of time Harlow had found that a baby monkey should have a mother in, to develop normally ?
90 days
What did Bowlby describe that was influenced from the findings of Harlow?
He described how important it is for human children to have an emotional bond during young childhood.
What two things did Bowlby’s work go on to impact?
- social workers/ clinical psychologists and how they advise parents to treat their children.
-zoos/breeding programmes and how they look after newborns, improving the outcomes for thousands of animals.
What is the generalisability issue regarding Harlow’s research and findings?
Monkeys may not generalise that well to humans, despite similarities, there are also many differences and human behaviour is believed to be far more complex than Rhesus Monkeys.
What did Howe (1998) report on following up from the impact of Harlow’s research? (Regarding social workers)
He reported on how the research had impacted social workers/ clinical psychologists who then adopted the belief that love + comfort were the most needed during the initial stages of childhood, rather than food etc.
What did social workers / clinical psychologists do in respond to Howe’s (1998) reporting?
They adjusted their policies on supporting children and created preventions for children is question who are in cases of neglect to have less poorer outcomes.
