Attachment - Animal Studies Flashcards
What are animal studies used to look at?
The formation of early bonds between non-human parents and their offspring
Why can animal studies help us understand attachment in humans?
Because attachment is common to a range of species
Who is Lorenz?
One of the most prominent ethnologists (animal researcher)
When did Lorenz first observe imprinting?
When he was child
How did Lorenz gain an interest in imprinting?
A neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling that began to follow him around
What two groups did Lorenz divide the gosling eggs into?
1 group left with their natural mother
1 group placed in an incubator
When the incubator eggs hatched, what was the first thing the goslings saw?
Lorenz
When the natural mother eggs hatched, what was the first thing they saw?
Their mother
What did Lorenz record once the goslings hatched?
The behaviour of all the goslings
What did the goslings do once they hatched? IMPRINTING
They proceeded to follow the first moving object they saw during the critical period
Critical period
The first 12-17 hours of the goslings’ life
What suggests that attachment is innate and genetically programmed?
The group born with their natural mother followed their mother goose. The group born in an incubator followed Lorenz
What do the results of Lorenz’s study support?
It supports having a biological basis for an attachment is adaptive
Consequences of imprinting
Has consequences for short-term survival
What does imprinting occur without?
Without any feeding taking place
When will an animal not imprint?
The animal will not imprint if it hasn’t seen a moving object during the critical period
When may it be unlikely for any attachment to develop?
If no imprint has developed in 32 hours
Imprinting is… (adjective)
Reversible
Sexual imprinting
Later mates chosen based upon the object they imprinted on
Courtship behaviour
Set of display behaviours in which an animal attempt to attract opposite sex
Where does a young animal learn the characteristics of a desirable mate from?
The object it imprinting on
What did Guiton find about sexual imprinting?
Animals aren’t born with predisposition to only imprint on specific things, but on any moving thing present in the critical period
How did Guiton research sexual imprinting using chicks?
He exposed them to yellow rubber gloves for feeding them during first fear weeks and they became imprinted on the gloves. They were found to later try and mate with the glove
Evaluation point of Lorenz research: generalising
No research has done to suggest that this links to humans
