ATT 05 - Animal Studies Flashcards
1
Q
What are animal studies?
A
In psychology these are studies carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons – practical because animals breed faster, and researchers are interested in seeing results cross more than one generation of animals
2
Q
What is imprinting?
A
It is where animals follow the first moving object they see and suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically
3
Q
What is the function of Bateson’s decsion cube?
A
- It weighs up the benefits from running the experiment and measures them up against the costs of doing so
- If the benefits are not considerably higher than the costs of the study, and the study has not been planned well, it shouldn’t be conducted
- Similarly, when the benefits highly outweigh the costs and the study is well-thought out and controlled and monitored well, it should be carried out
4
Q
What was the procedure of Lorenz’s study?
A
- As an adult researcher Lorenz set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs
- Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment
- The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
5
Q
What were the findings of Lorenz’s study?
A
- The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group, hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her
- When the two groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother, and the experimental group follow Lorenz
- This phenomenon is called imprinting – whereby bird species that are mobile from birth (like geese and ducks) attach to and follow the first moving object they see
- Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place
- Depending on the species this can be as brief a few hours after hatching (or birth)
- If imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure
6
Q
What are the strengths of Lorenz’s study?
A
- Research support for concept of imprinting
- Possible applications to understanding of human behaviour
7
Q
What research support is there for the concept of imprinting?
A
- One strength of Lorenz’s research is the existence of support for the concept of imprinting
- A study by Lucia Regolin and Giorgio Vallortigara (1995) supports Lorenz’s idea of imprinting
- Chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved, such as a triangle with a rectangle in front
- A range of shape combinations were then moved in front of them, and they followed the original most closely
- This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development, as predicted by Lorenz
8
Q
How can Lorenz’s study be applied to understand human behaviour?
A
- Although human attachment is very different from that in birds there have been attempts to use the idea that some kind of ‘imprinting’ explains human behaviour
- For example, Peter Seebach (2005) suggested that computer users exhibit ‘baby duck syndrome’ - which is the attachment formed to their first computer operating system, leading them to reject others
9
Q
What are the limitations of Lorenz’s study?
A
Findings and conclusions from birds cannot be generalised to humans
10
Q
Why can’t the findings/conclusions of Lorenz’s study be generalised to humans?
A
- One limitation of Lorenz’s studies is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans
- The mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds
- For example, in mammals, attachment is a two-way process, so it is not just the young who become attached to their mothers but also the mammalian mothers show an emotional attachment to their young
- This means that it is probably not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas to humans
11
Q
What was the procedure of Harlow’s study?
A
- Harlow (1958) tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother
- In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
- In one condition milk was dispersed by the plain wire mother whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother
12
Q
What were the findings of Harlow’s research?
A
- The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain-wire mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened (e.g. by a noisy mechanical teddy bear) regardless of which mother (cloth-covered or plain-wire) dispensed milk
- This showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour
13
Q
What were the findings long after the study had been conducted?
A
- After following the monkeys into adulthood who suffered from maternal deprivation, the monkeys brought up by the wire monkey were the most dysfunctional
- Monkeys who were reared by the towel covered monkey were more aggressive and less sociable and bread less often
- If females became mothers, they neglected their young and attacked their young. In some cases, killed them
- Monkeys preferred contact with the towelling mother when given a choice of surrogate mother (regardless of where she produced milk)
- The monkeys even stretched across the wire to monkey to feed whilst still clinging to the towelling mother (providing comfort)
- Monkeys with only the wire surrogate suffered from diarrhoea (a sign of stress)
- When frightened by a loud noise monkeys clung to the towelling mother (when this was available)
- In the large cage conditions, monkeys with the towelling mothers explored more and visited their surrogate mother more
14
Q
What did Harlow conclude?
A
- Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for attachment formation – a mother figure had to be introduced to a young monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form
- After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible
15
Q
What are the strength’s of Harlow’s study?
A
Research is important to real-world applications
16
Q
How does Harlow’s study have real-world applications?
A
- One strength of Harlow’s research is its important real-world applications
- For example, it has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes (Howe 1998)
- We also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild
- This means that the value of Harlow’s research is not just theoretical but also practical
17
Q
What are the limitations of Harlow’s study?
A
- Findings and conclusions from monkeys cannot be generalised to humans
- Ethical issues
18
Q
Why can’t the findings/conclusions of Harlow’s study be generalised to humans?
A
- One limitation of Harlow’s research is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans
- Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds, and all mammals share some common attachment behaviours
- However, the human brain and human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys
- This means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans
19
Q
What are the ethical issues of Harlow’s study?
A
- Harlow’s research caused severe and long-term distress to the monkeys
- However, his findings and conclusions have important theoretical and practical applications
20
Q
What did Lorenz observe about sexual imprinting?
A
- Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences
- He observed that birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans
- In a case study Lorenz (1952) described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises
- As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises
- Lorenz concluded that this meant the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting
