Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
what is the procedure for Lorenz’s animal study?
he split goose eggs into 2 batches, 1 hatched naturally by the mother and the other hatched in an incubator with Lorenz being the first moving object they encountered.
behaviour was recorded.
he marked them and put them under a upturned box
what are the findings for Lorenz’s animal study?
after birth, the naturally hatched goslings followed their mother but the incubated followed Lorenz.
the bonds were seen to be irreversible and the naturally hatched goslings would only follow their mum and incubated only follow Lorenz.
imprinting would only occur within a brief time period between 4-25 hours after hatching
what is the conclusion of Lorenz’s animal study?
imprinting is a form of attachment especially with goslings where close contact is kept with the first large moving object encountered
give evaluations for Lorenz’s animal study
imprinting is irreversible, so the ability must be under biological control as learned behaviours can be modified by experience.
the fact imprinting occurs within a brief time period influenced Bowlby’s critical period.
the attachments of geese isn’t necessarily the same as humans.
what is the procedure for Harlow’s monkey study?
2 types of surrogate mums - wired mum & towelling mum.
16 baby monkeys, 4 in each condition:
cage, wired mum producing milk & towelling mum with no milk.
cage, wired mum not producing milk & towelling mum with milk.
cage, wired mum producing milk.
cage, towelling mum producing milk.
amount of time with mum & feeding time recorded.
monkeys frightened with loud noise to test for mum preference during stress
what are the findings for Harlow’s monkey study?
monkeys preferred towelling mum regardless of whether she produced milk, even stretching across to the wired mother to feed while still clinging to the towelling mother.
monkeys with only wired mum had diarrhoea, sign of stress.
when frightened by noise, clung to towelling mum when available.
what are the conclusions for Harlow’s monkey study?
rhesus monkeys have an innate, unlearned need for contact comfort - shows attachment concerns emotional security more than food.
contact comfort is associated with lower levels of stress & willingness to explore - emotional security
give evaluations for Harlow’s monkey study
can’t generalise the results to humans as it uses animals.
ethical issues with separating the baby monkeys & stress.
what is Sluckin’s research?
questioned whether there was a critical period.
replicated Lorenz’s study but with duckings & kept one in isolation beyond Lorenz’s critical period.
found it was still possible to imprint it and concluded the critical period was actually a sensitive period
what is a sensitive period?
a time period best for imprinting to perform but can still form with more difficulty outside this period
