animal studies of attachment Flashcards
what was the procedure of lorenz’s imprinting study?
● one half of the goose eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment
● the other half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was lorenz
● they mixed all the goslings together to see who they would follow
● lorenz also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour
what were the findings of lorenz’s imprinting study?
● in the short term: incubator group followed lorenz everywhere (they imprinted on him), whereas the other group followed the mother around
● long term: also, sexual imprinting - birds acquired template of the desirable characteristics required in a mate - permanent effect of mating behaviour
what was the conclusion of lorenz’s imprinting study?
● there is a critical period
● imprinting needs to happen during a certain time after birth
● otherwise chicks do not attach themselves to a mother figure
what was the procedure of harlow’s importance of contact comfort study?
● harlow reared 16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
● condition 1: plain-wire ‘mother’ - dispensed milk
● condition 2: cloth-covered ‘mother’ - no milk
● to measure attachment behaviour, harlow observed how the monkey’s reacted when placed in frightening conditions
● harlow and colleagues also continued to study monkeys who had been deprived of their ‘real’ mother into adulthood
what was the findings of harlow’s importance of contact comfort study?
● short term: baby monkey’s cuddled the soft ‘cloth’ mother in preference to wired one that provided food - suggesting that contact comfort is more important than food when it comes to attachment behaviour
● long term: harlow followed monkeys (deprived of real mothers) into adulthood and found they had severe problems - more aggressive, less sociable, less skilled in mating than other monkeys
