Lorenz Animal Studies

Question 1

Why animal studies?

Answer 1

• They have been used to look at the formation of early bonds between non-human parents and their offspring
• Psychologists are interested in this because attachment like behaviour is common to a range of species, therefore animal studies can help us understand attachment in humans

Question 2

Imprinting experiment (1935)- method

Answer 2

• He took a large clutch of goose eggs and kept them until they were about to hatch out. The eggs were then randomly divided
• Half of the eggs when then placed under a goose mother, while Lorenz kept the other half beside him for several hours
• Half were hatched with mother present (natural environment), half were hatched in an incubator with Lorenz present. The behaviour of all goslings were recorded

Question 3

Imprinting experiment (1935)- findings

Answer 3

• Once the goslings had hatched, they proceeded to follow the first moving thing they saw between 13 and 16 hours after hatching; including Lorenz
• Lorenz imitated a mother geese quaking sounds, upon which the young birds regarded him as their mother and followed him accordingly. The other group followed the mother goose
• This process is known as imprinting, and suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically
• It supports the view that having a biological basis for an attachment is adaptive as it provides survival

Question 4

Critical period

Answer 4

An early stage in life when an organism is especially open to specific learning, emotional, or socializing experiences that occur as part of normal development and will not recur at a later stage.

Question 5

Harlow’s monkeys (1958)

Answer 5

• He aimed to demonstrate that attachment is not based on the feeding bond between mother and infant
• 16 monkeys were separated from their birth mothers immediately, and placed in cages with access to two artificial mothers, one made of cloth and one made of metal wiring
• 8 of the monkeys could get their milk from the cloth mother, and the other 8 got it from the metal mother
• The animals were observed for 165 days. The infant would only go to the wire mother when hungry. Once it had fed it would return to the cloth mother for most of the day. If a frightening object was placed in the cage, the infant took refuge with the cloth mother (safe base)
• Long-term effect were also recorded e.g sociability

Findings:
- For monkeys left for 90 days or more, they problems socialising with other monkeys, they were timid or aggressive, as well as the females being inadequate mothers
- For monkeys left less than 90 days, the effects could be reversed

Question 6

Importance of Harlow’s research

Answer 6

• It supports the importance of bonding between mother/main career and baby
• The monkeys who were not shown affection or could not cuddle with the cloth mother had trouble gaining weight thus leading researchers to believe that affection has a large impact on a child’s development