animal studies of attachment:Lorenz's research Flashcards
What are the two types of theory for attachment?
evolutionary and learning
What is the evolutionary theory for attachment?
tendency to form attachment is innate, tendency is present in both infants and mothers
What is the learning theory for attachment?
infants have no innate tendency to form attachments.
They learn attachments because hey associate the mother with providing food
What is an ethologist?
Biologists who study animal behavior in natural environment
What was the aim of the study?
to examine the phenomenon of imprinting in non-human animals
What is imprinting?
baby animals form an attachment to the first moving thing they see after birth
What was the procedure?
randomly divided grey goose eggs into twi halves-one would stay with the mother and the others would be hatched with him
the following behaviour of both sides was then monitored
what was the results of the experiment?
straight after birth the naturally hatched goslings followed their mother goose, whereas the incubator goslings followed Lorenz, showing no attachment to their biological mother
When did this imprinting happen?
within the critical period of 4-25 hours after hatching-this relationship persisted over time and proved to be irreversible
what was the conclusion?
imprinting is a form of attachment that is exhibited by birds that typically leave the nest early, whereby they imprint on the first large moving object they see after hatching
What happened to birds who imprinted on humans when they reached sexual maturity?
they would later on display courtship to humans
what study found that sexual imprinting was a thing?
Lorenz did a study on a peacock that was reared in a reptile house in a zoo where the first movie objects it saw where giant tortoises.
as an adult this bird would only display courtship to giant tortoises
this meant he the peacock had gone through sexual imprinting
What is sexual imprinting?
a form of learned mate preference where young animals develop a template of what a desirable mate looks like based on early observations, often of their parents or other members of their population, which influences their adult mate choice.
What is a strength of Harlow’s research?
P-a strength of Harlow’s research is is the existing support for the concept of imprinting
E-For example, insight into Harlow’s research has had important applications in a wide range of contexts. It has aided social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and so intervene to prevent it (Howe 1998). Harlow’s findings have been critical in the rearing of captive monkeys as it is understood how vital proper attachment figures are for them in zoos and in breeding programmes in the wild.
C-this means that Harlow’s research is not just theoretical but also practical
