animal studies of attachment

Question 1

Lorenz was an ethologist. Whats the definition of an ethologist:

Answer 1

someone who studies animals within their natural habitat

Question 2

what the procedure for his experiments: (carried out his experiment with grey lag geese)

Answer 2

TWO experimental conditions:

• Condition 1: He was the first thing that the goose chicks saw when they hatched.
• Condition 2: the goose mother was the first thing the goose chicks saw when they hatched

Question 3

what were the findings for the 2 conditions:

Answer 3

• Condition 1:
• the chicks who saw Lorenz before anything else, follow him like he was their mother
• Condition 2:
• the chicks that saw their mother first, followed her when they were young

Question 4

what is imprinting:

Answer 4

the tendency to form an attachment to the first large moving object seen after birth

Question 5

what did Lorenz say about the time period for Imprinting:

Answer 5

• When the gosling has hatched the strongest tendency to imprint was between 13 and 16 hours.
• By 32 hours, the tendency to imprint has virtually passed and the attachment will not take place

Question 6

what was the name given to the ‘window of development’ for imprinting

Answer 6

Critical period

Question 7

what did sexual imprinting investigate:

Answer 7

• It investigated the relationship between imprinting and male preferences
• the birds that had imprinted on humans, later displayed courtship behaviours towards humans

Question 8

what was Harlow first monkey experiment about:

Answer 8

The need for contact comfort.
He aimed to see if monkeys preferred a food source or comfort.
- a Metal surrogate mother with food
- a cloth surrogate mother
the monkeys would get food from the metal mother and then go back to the cloth mother for comfort

Question 9

what further research was done for Harlow’s Monkeys:

Answer 9

• Harlow and Zimmerman (1959) - fearful stimulus
• when scared the monkeys would cling to the cloth mother and then explore
• monkeys without a cloth mother would remain frozen or run wildly around the cage
• Harlow and Sumoi (1970) - food or no food
• cloth mother with food was preferred to a cloth mother without food

Question 10

why are these experiments not good when talking about humans

Answer 10

Lorenz’s study used birds and mammalian attachment is different form birds

Question 11

ethical issues from Harlow’s study

Answer 11

• the monkeys suffered greatly as a result of the study

Question 12

what was the theoretical value of Harlow’s study

Answer 12

• profound effect on understanding of mother-infant attachment
• attachment is formed through comfort, not as a result of being fed