Attachment- Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
Animal studies in psychology 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 across more than one generation of animals.
What did Konrad Lorenz observe as a child that led to his interest in imprinting?
As a child, Lorenz observed a newly hatched duckling follow him around after it was given to him by a neighbor, sparking his interest in imprinting.
What was the procedure of Lorenz’s classic experiment on imprinting?
Lorenz divided a clutch of goose eggs into two groups: one hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment, and the other hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
What were the findings of Lorenz’s imprinting experiment?
The incubator group followed Lorenz, while the control group followed the mother goose. When mixed, each group continued to follow their respective “mother,” demonstrating imprinting.
What is imprinting, and what is its critical period?
Imprinting is when bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see. The critical period is a brief window (a few hours after hatching) during which imprinting must occur.
What did Lorenz discover about sexual imprinting?
Lorenz found that birds imprinted on humans or other species (e.g., a peacock imprinted on tortoises) would later display courtship behavior toward those objects, indicating sexual imprinting.
What did Harry Harlow observe about newborn monkeys in bare cages?
Harlow observed that newborn monkeys kept alone in bare cages usually died, but they survived if given something soft, like a cloth, to cuddle.
What was the procedure of Harlow’s experiment on contact comfort?
Harlow reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model “mothers”: one plain wire mother dispensed milk, and the other, a cloth-covered mother, also dispensed milk.
What were the findings of Harlow’s contact comfort experiment?
The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth mother for comfort, regardless of which mother dispensed milk, showing that contact comfort was more important than food for attachment.
What were the long-term effects of maternal deprivation in Harlow’s monkeys?
Monkeys deprived of a real mother showed severe consequences: they were aggressive, less sociable, unskilled at mating, and some neglected or attacked their own offspring.
What did Harlow conclude about the critical period for attachment in monkeys?
Harlow concluded that a mother figure had to be introduced within 90 days for attachment to form; after this period, the damage from deprivation became irreversible.
What is a limitation of generalizing Lorenz’s findings to humans?
Birds and mammals have different attachment systems; mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment, and mammals can form attachments at any time, making Lorenz’s findings less applicable to humans.
What did Guiton et al. find that challenged Lorenz’s view on imprinting?
Guiton et al. found that chickens imprinted on yellow gloves eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens, suggesting imprinting’s effects on mating behavior are not permanent.
What is the theoretical value of Harlow’s research?
Harlow demonstrated that attachment is based on contact comfort, not feeding, and highlighted the importance of early relationships for later social and emotional development.
What is the practical value of Harlow’s findings?
Harlow’s research has informed social work practices, helping to identify risk factors in child neglect and abuse, and improved care for captive monkeys in zoos and breeding programs.
What ethical issues were raised by Harlow’s research?
Harlow’s monkeys suffered greatly, and the research was criticized for its ethical implications, as the species’ similarity to humans meant their suffering was human-like.
How do psychologists view the generalizability of Harlow’s findings to humans?
While monkeys are more similar to humans than birds, there is debate about how applicable findings from non-human primates are to human attachment.
What are the arguments for and against applying Harlow’s research to humans?
For: Monkeys share similarities with humans in social and emotional
development.
Against: Monkeys are not humans, and their attachment systems may differ in significant ways.
