Animal Studies of Attachment Flashcards
What animals did Lorenz conduct attachment research on?
Geese
What was Lorenz’ procedure?
he divided goose eggs: half hatched in their natural environment with their mother goose / half hatched in an incubator and the first moving object they say was Lorenz
What were Lorenz’ findings?
the incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere and the control group followed their mother
what is imprinting?
where species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see
what did Lorenz say was the critical period? what does this mean?
they had to imprint within a few hours of hatching otherwise they did not attach to a mother figure
what did Lorenz find when investigating sexual imprinting?
birds who imprinted on humans would display later courtship to them. When the first object a peacock saw was a tortoise, it would display courtship to the tortoise
What animals did Harlow conduct attachment research on?
rhesus monkeys
what was Harlow’s procedure?
He reared 16 monkeys with two wire mothers: either a plain wire mother or a cloth-covered mother to see that a soft object serves some functions of a mother
what were Harlow’s findings?
the monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother and sought comfort from it when frightened regardless of which one dispensed milk. This shows comfort is more important than food in attachment behaviour
what did Harlow say the critical period for attachment was
within 90 days
