Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
Key study: Lorenz (1935)
What did Lorenz use in his study?
A clutch of gosling eggs
Key study: Lorenz (1935)
What did Lorenz divide the gosling eggs into?
- One left with their natural mother
- Others placed in an incubator
Key study: Lorenz (1935)
What/ who was the first thing that the goslings put in an incubator saw?
Lorenz
Key study: Lorenz (1935)
What did the goslings hatched from an incubator do ?
Follow Lorenz around
Key study: Lorenz (1935)
How did Lorenz test the effects of imprinting?
- Marked the two groups
- Placed the together
- Both groups had become imprinted
Key study: Lorenz (1935)
What were the findings of Lorenz experiment of impriniting?
Goslings divided themselves up, one following the natural mother
Other group followed Lorenz
Key study: Lorenz (1935)
How did Lorenz’s goslings react to the natural mother?
They had no recognition of her
Key study: Lorenz (1935)
What did Lorenz suggest about the time period of imprinting?
That the time period is very short, and CRITICAL
Key study: Lorenz (1935)
What did Lorenz suggest happened if an animal isn’t exposed to a moving object during this early period?
Then it would not imprint
How is imprinting similar to attachment?
It binds a young animal to a caregiver in a special relationship
What was one feature Lorenz noted for imprinting?
The process is irreversible and long lasting
What did Lorenz suggest about mate preferences and imprinting?
Early imprinting had an effect on later mate preferences, sexual imprinting
Animals will choose to mate with the same kind of object which they were imprinted
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What did Harlow create for his experiment?
Two wire mothers
- With difference heads
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What were the differences between the two wire mothers?
One was wrapped in a soft cloth the other was not
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What kind of animal did Harlow use?
Eight infant rhesus monkeys
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
How long were the monkeys studied for?
165 days
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What were the independent variables of the two wire mothers?
- 4 monkeys had the soft mother with a milk bottle attached
- 4 monkeys had the wire mother with a milk bottle attachment
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What did Harlow measure?
The amount of time each infant spent with the two different mother’s
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What else did Harlow observe?
Monkey’s infants’ responses when frightened
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What were the monkey’s scared with?
A mechanical teddy bear
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What did Harlow find?
All eight monkeys spent the most time with the cloth covered mother - whether it had the feeding bottles or not
- Monkeys whose wire mother had the bottle spent very little time there and quickly returned back to the cloth mother
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What happened when monkeys were frightened?
All monkeys clung to the cloth mother
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
What do Harlow’s findings suggest?
Infants do not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering contact comfort
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
How did the motherless monkeys, even those who did have contact comfort, develop?
They developed abnormally
Key Study: Harlow (1959)
How were the monkeys abnormal?
- Socially abnormal, Froze or fled when other monkeys came close
- Sexually abnormal, they did not show normal mating behaviour and did not cradle their own babies
