Attachment - Animal studies Flashcards
What is imprinting in animal studies?
An innate readiness to develop a strong bond w/ the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, Probably first few hrs after birth
What was the procedure of Lorenz’s gosling study?
Randomly divided a clutch of gosling eggs into 2 groups, half w/ mother and half w/ Lorenz.
First living thing incubator eggs saw when they hatched was Lorenz and they started to follow him.
Put the 2 groups together w/ him and the mother to see who they would go to.
What was the findings of Lorenz’s gosling study?
Goslings divided themselves into the 2 groups, one following the mother and the other Lorenz.
Lorenz’s goslings showed no recognition of their birth mother.
Process of imprinting limited to v. short time period. Called it the critical period.
Lorenz’s research AO3: What supporting evidence is there?
Supporting evidence for the concept of imprinting.
Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) exposed chicks to simple shape combinations that moved (e.g. triangle w/ rectangle infront). Range of shape combinations put in front of them and they followed the original shape more closely.
Young animals have innate ability to imprint during critical period.
Lorenz’s research AO3: What is a limitation of this study?
Generalises the findings of a study using birds to humans.
Mammalian attachment system different and more complex than that of birds - it is a two way process so both the young and the mothers have the emotional attachment.
What is the procedure of Harlow’s study?
Reared 16 baby monkeys w/ 2 wire surrogate mothers.
In one condition the milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother while in another it was dispensed by the cloth covered mother.
Also made observations of the monkeys beh. when frightened.
What were the findings of Harlow’s study?
The monkeys preferred the cloth mother to the wire one even if the wire one dispensed the milk. Sought comfort from cloth mother when frightened. Would even go a long time w/o milk if the wire mother had it in order to stay w/ the cloth mother.
Contact comfort more important than food.
What did Harlow discover about the maternally deprived monkeys when they were older?
Severe consequences. Monkeys reared by only a plain wire mother were the most dysfunctional but those w/ a cloth mother didn’t develop normal social beh.
More aggressive and less sociable. Breed less often as they were unskilled at mating. Neglected their own young and sometimes attacked them even killing them.
Harlow’s research AO3: What is a strength of this research?
It has real world application.
Helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand how a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development and allow them to intervene.
Understand importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and wild breeding programmes.
