animal studies of attachment

Question 1

define imprinting

Answer 1

an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development

Question 2

what is an ethologist

Answer 2

an individual studying animal behaviour in their natural conditions

Question 3

outline the procedure of lorenz study

Answer 3

• Lorenz took a clutch of goose eggs and divided them into two groups
• group one was left with the natural mother
• the others left in an incubator
• the first thing group 2 saw was lorenz and soon started following him
• to test the effect of imprinting lorenz marked the two groups and placed them together

Question 4

outline the findings or lorenz research

Answer 4

• Goslings quickly divided themselves up with group one following the mother and group 2 following him
• lorenz goslings showed no recognition of their natural mother
• lorenz noted that imprinting is restricted to a certain period of time= the critical period
• if imprinting doesnt occur in this period the animal will not imprint

Question 5

outline the procedure of Harlows study

Answer 5

1) created two wire monkey mothers with different heads, one wrapped in soft cloth and the other just wire
2) 8 infant monkey were studied over a period of 165 days
3) 4 of the monkeys the milk bottle was a cloth covered mother and the other 4 the wire mother
4) during that time measurements were made on the amount of time spent with the two different mothers
5) observations also made on the infants responses when frightened

Question 6

outline the findings of Harlows study

Answer 6

1) all 8 monkeys spent the most time with the cloth covered monkey whether or not it had the feeding bottle
2) the monkeys which fed from the wire monkey only spent a short period of time getting the milk before moving to the cloth monkey
3) when frightened all monkeys clung to the cloth mother

Question 7

outline what the findings of Harlows research tells us about attachment

Answer 7

that infants do not form attachments with the person who feeds them but to the person offering comfort

Question 8

what are the long lasting effects of imprinting according to Lorenz

Answer 8

1) it is an irreversible process
2) long lasting process
3) can have later effects on mate preferences called sexual imprinting- animals, especially birds will choose a mate based on the same sort of object they imprinted on

Question 9

evaluate Lorenz research

Answer 9

1) research support for imprinting- research found that chicks exposed to a yellow rubber glove while being fed during the first few weeks became imprinted on the glove- this supports the idea that young animals aren’t born with the predisposition to imprint of a specific object but instead any moving thing present in the critical window. Male chickens later tried to mate with the gloves showing sexual imprinting
2) criticism in imprinting- many years the accepted view was that imprinting was irreversible, now it is understood that imprinting is more ‘plastic and forgiving’. Research found that he cold reverse imprinting in chickens that initially tired to mate with the glove- he found after spend time with the own species they engaged in usual sexual behaviour- this suggests imprinting isnt any different from any other learning

Question 10

evaluate Harlows research

Answer 10

1) confounding variable- the two stimuli varied more than just being cloth covered and wire, the two head were different which acts as a CV as it varied systematically from the independent variable. It is possible the infants preferred the cloth covered mother as it had a more attractive head- lacks internal validity
2) generalisation- humans differ in important ways from animals, our behaviour is based more on conscious decisions however a number of studies made observations of animal attachment which mirrored studies in humans ie infants are most attracted to the person which fed them= always seek confirmation
3) ethics- Harlow’s study couldn’t be done on humans but should it be done on monkeys- study created long lasting emotional harm as monkeys later found it hard to form relationships with peers- it can be justified that it had a significant effect on our understanding of processes with attachment- therefore argue that benefits outweigh costs