attachment- animal studies Flashcards
Lorenz procedure
-randomly divided large clutch of goose eggs
-half hatched w mother goose in natural environ
-other half hatched in incubator where first moving object they saw was Lorenz
-mixed all goslings together to see whom they would follow
-also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour
Lorenz findings
-Incubator group followed Lorenz, control group followed the mother
Lorenz conclusions
-CRITICAL PERIOD in which imprinting needs to take place e.g. few hours after hatching
-if imprinting did not occur within that time, chicks did not attach themselves to the mother figure
-sexual imprinting also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable characteristics required in a mate
harlow procedure
-reared 16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
-condition 1 - milk was dispensed by the plain-wire ‘mother’
-condition 2 - milk was dispensed by the cloth- covered ‘mother’
-preferences were measured
-observed how the monkeys reacted when placed in frightening situations. i.e. noisy mechanical teddy bear
-continued to study the monkeys who had been deprived of their ‘real’ mother into adulthood
Harlow findings
-baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother regardless of which dispensed milk.
-monkeys sought comfort from the cloth-covered mother when frightened.
-monkeys deprived of their real mothers suffered severe consequences- more aggressive, less sociable and less skilled than other monkeys
harlow conclusions
-suggests contact comfort was of more important than food when it came to attachment behaviour
ao3 animal studies: concept of imprinting
-Regolin and Vallotigara (1995) exposed chicks to simple shape-combinations that moved
-when shown a range of moving shapes followed these in preference to other shapes
-suggests that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object
ao3 animal studies: generalising from birds to humans
-mammalian attachment system is quite different from imprinting in birds
-i.e. mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their young.
-so may not be appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas about imprinting to humans.
ao3 animal studies: applications to human behaviour
-the concept of imprinting can explain some human behaviour
-i.e. ‘baby duck syndrome’, in which computer users become attached to their first operating system.
-means that imprinting is a meaningful process in humans as well as birds.
ao3 animal studies: harlows research has real-world value
-helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse and thus intervene to prevent it (Howe 1998)
-also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes
-Hariow’s research has benefitted both animals and humans
ao3 animal studies: generalising from monkeys to humans
-monkeys more similar than geese to humans as all mammals share some similarities in their attachment systems
-but not humans and in some ways the human mind and behaviour much more complex
-means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans
ao3 animal studies: ethical issues- Harlow
-Harlow’s procedures caused severe long-term distress to his monkey participants, though research led to useful applications.
-but, his findings and conclusions have important theoretical and practical applications.
-suggests that, in spite of its benefits, Harlow’s research perhaps should not have been carried out.
