Animal studies of attachement

Question 1

Why are animal studies carried out?

Answer 1

for ethical/practical reasons on non-human animal species

look at how early bonds are formed between non-human parents and their offspring

help us understand attachement in humans

Question 2

What is Lorenz aim?

Answer 2

to investigate effects on imprinting on goslings

Question 3

What method did Lorenz use?

Answer 3

Field experiment

Question 4

What procedure did Lorenz use?

Answer 4

• randomly divided the goose eggs 🥚
• 1/2 eggs attached to mother goose in natural environment (control group)
• 1/2 hatched in incubator first moving object they saw was lorenz (experimental group)
• recorded behaviour of goslings-who they imprinted on

Question 5

What were Lorenz’s findings?

Answer 5

• incubator group saw Lorenz first and imprinted upon and followed Lorenz everywhere whereas group who saw mother group imprinted upon her
• identified critical period (12-17hrs) after hatching in which imprinting needs to take place if not occured chicks will not attach to mother figure
• goslings who imprinted on humans as adult birds attempt to mate with humans (sexual imprinting)

Question 6

What did Lorenz conclude?

Answer 6

goslings imprint on first moving object that they see there is a specific time period this needs to take place or will not happen

Question 7

Give a strength of Lorez’s study

Answer 7

P - practical applications
E - principles of research goslings had to imprint within (12-17hrs) otherwise wud not imprint at all and goslings who imprint on humans show sexual behaviour towards them
E - shows importance of critical period in future rs
L - promote importance if early interactions between parents and infants reduces ⬇️ issues later in life therefore important in applied psych

Question 8

How can Lorenz’s study be criticised?

Answer 8

P - animal bias 🦆 as conucted on goslings to investigate attachement
E - potentially a problem as human attachement behaviour more complex than animal attachement as human emotions are more sophisticated towards offspring than birds
E - attachement in humans two way process not just young who show attachement but also mamallian mothwrs who emotionally attach to their young
L - issues with extraploiting findings of Lorenz’s research into attachement

Question 9

Give a second criticism of Lorenz’s study

Answer 9

P - researcher bias
E - Lorenz recorded his own observations of goslings so he may have chosen to only include findings that would support his theory of imprinting
L - therefore lowering internal validity of researcg as not measuring effects of imprining on attachement

Question 10

What was Harlow’s aim?

Answer 10

To investigate whether food or comfort is more important in formation of attachements

Question 11

What method did Harlow use?

Answer 11

Lab experiment

controlled environment

Question 12

What was the procedure of Harlow’s study?

Answer 12

• 16 baby rhesus 🐵 seperated from morhers at birth brought up in cages
• cage contained surrogate mothers milk wire and cloth 🥛🧣
• amount of time spent w mother recorded
• monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to test which mother they preferred when they was stressed
• long term effects recorded such as sociability and rs to their future offspring

Question 13

What were the findings of Harlow’s study?

Answer 13

• monkeys spent more time with cloth mother than wire mother
• when frightened wud go to cloth mother 😥
• monkeys had emotional damage later in life such as being more timid easily bullied, difficulty mating and females being inadequate mothers when older

Question 14

What did Harlow conclude?

Answer 14

contact comfort is most important factor over food when forming an attachement

Question 15

Give a strength into Harlow’s study

Answer 15

P - practical applications as it emphasises importance of comfort in formation of attachements
E - finding can be used by social workers and clinical psychologists in understanding that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child’s development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes (Howe 1998)
L - research is important in applied psych when explaining formations of attachement

Question 16

Why is usefullness of prac apps limited?

Answer 16

P - criticised for animal bias used rhesus monkeys to investigate attachement
E - potentially a problem as human attachement behaviour more complex than animal attachement behaviour as human emotions are more sophisticated towards their offspring than animals
L - therefore an issue w extraploiting the findings of Harlow’s research into attachement in humans

Question 17

Give a weakness into Harlow’s study

Answer 17

P - raises ethical issues due to harm inflicted on monkeys
E - monkeys suffered greatly as a result Harlow’s procedures and were frightened, had emotional/social issues in later life and sometimes died
L - limiting harlow’s research into attachement in animals

Question 18

What is the counter argument fir ethical issues

Answer 18

However Harlow argued importance of findings into formation of attachements outweighed the distress caused to the monkeys as at the time of Harlow’s research there was a dominant belief that attachement was due to physical (food) rather than emotional care