Animal studies of attachment

Question 1

What is imprinting?

Answer 1

It is an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother, which takes place within a specific time period.

Question 2

What is a critical period?

Answer 2

A window of time in which something develops (for example a behavior)

Question 3

Who conducted an investigation on imprinting?

Answer 3

Lorenz

Question 4

What was the aim of Lorenz’s investigation?

Answer 4

Lorenz wanted to investigate the mechanisms of imprinting where the young form an attachment to the first large moving object they meet.

Question 5

What was the procedure of Lorenz’s study on imprinting?

Answer 5

At first Lorenz divided a clutch of goose eggs into to halves:
>One half of the eggs was left to hatch with the mother
>The other half of the eggs hatched in an incubator and the first large moving object they saw was Lorenz.

In other studies Lorenz got young goslings to imprint on inanimate objects such as wellington boots.

Question 6

The half of the eggs that where left to hatch with the mother is known as the…..

Answer 6

control group

Question 7

Why is it important in this study to have a control group?

Answer 7

So that you are able to see how the goslings wold have behaved in their natural settings which can then be directly compared to the experimental set up. This would help give a clearer understanding of how imprinting truly works.

Question 8

What were the results of Lorenz’s study on imprinting?

Answer 8

The control group followed the mother goose, whereas as the second group followed Lorenz.
Lorenz marked the goslings to indicate which group of eggs they had hatched from and then let them out together from an upturned box; each gosling went straight to its ‘mother figure’. Lorenz goslings showed no recognition of their real mother.

Lorenz found that the strongest tendency to imprint was between 13 and 16 hours after hatching. He called this the critical period. If the attachment did not occur during this time period then the attachment would not take place.

Question 9

What are the 4 points of evaluation to Lorenzs research on imprinting?

Answer 9

Research evidence to support his findings
The findings produce some important information
It generalises from birds to humans
Some of Lorenz’s conclusions have been questioned

Question 10

Create a PEE(C) paragraph to the fact the their is research evidence to support his findings as an evaluation point

Answer 10

P= Their are other studies that have demonstrated imprinting in animals which support Lorenz's research. 
E= For example, Guiton demonstrated that leghorn chicks that were fed on yellow rubber gloves during their first few weeks became imprinted on the gloves.
E= This supports the idea that young animals are not predisposed to imprint on anything specific, rather they imprint on the first, large moving object they see during their critical period.

Question 11

Create a PEE(C) paragraph for the fact that Lorenz’s findings produced some important information as an evaluation point

Answer 11

P= The results from Lorenz's study produced some valuable information. 
E= For example, The results suggest that their is a critical time period where attachment must occur. This finding influenced Bowlby's idea of the critical period in human babies.
E= As a result, Lorenz's work was important as his findings could be generalised to humans

Question 12

Create a PEE(C) paragraph to the fact the study generalises from birds to humans as an evaluation point

Answer 12

P= There is a problem with Lorenz's study in regards to generalising the findings to humans as the study was conducted on birds; as it appears that the mammalian attachment system is very different to that of birds. 
E= For example, mammalian mothers show a more emotional attachment to their infants, unlike birds. In addition mammals may be able to form attachments at any time.
E= Therefore we should always be skeptical when generalising the results from animal studies to humans as they may not be as accurate in regards to us.
C= However, some of Lorenz's findings have influenced  our understanding of human development.

Question 13

Create a PEE(C) paragraph to the fact that some of Lorenz’s conclusions have been questioned as an evaluation point

Answer 13

P= Some of the conclusions that Lorenz has come up with have been questioned by other psychologists.
E= For example, Lorenz suggested that imprinting had permanent consequences for later mating behavior but this is now contested. This is evident as Guiton showed that chickens who imprinted on the yellow rubber gloves would try to mate with them as adults, however with experience they learned to prefer to mate with other chickens
E= This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behavior is not as permanent as lorenz believed