animal studies of attachment Flashcards
what are animal studies in psychology
in psychology animal studies are carried out on non - human animal species rather than humans, either for ethical or practical reasons
why is it much more practical to use animals rather than humans in studies in psychology
it is more practical because animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing the results across more than one generations of animals
what did Lorenz do
in the 20th century a number if ethologists conducted animal studies of the relationship between infant animals and their mother
how did Lorenz study imprinting
PROCEDURE:
- Lorenz set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs
- half of the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment
- the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
when did Lorenz observe the the phenomenon of imprinting
Lorenz first observed the phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child and a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling
what were the findings from Lorenz’s study
The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her
When the two groups were mixed, the control group continued to follow the mother an the experimental group followed Lorenz
why did the animals follow Lorenz/ the mother
the phenomenon that Lorenz found was called imprinting - whereby bird species that are mobile from birth (like geese and ducks) attach to and follow the first moving object they see
what is the critical period
Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprintig needs to take place.
Depending on the species, this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching (or birth)
If imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother
what is sexual imprinting
Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences
Lorenz observed that birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans
what study did Lorenz do into sexual imprinting
Lorenz (1952) described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises
As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises
Lorenz concluded that this meant he had undergone sexual imprinting
what research did Harlow do into the importance of contact comfort
Harlow observed that newborns kept alone in a bare cage usually survived if given something soft like a cloth to cuddle
PROCEDURE:
Harlow (1958) tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother
In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model “mothers”
In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in a 2nd conditions of the milk was dispensed by the cloth covered mothers
what are the findings from Harlow’s study
It was found that the baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought out comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk
This showed that “contact comfort” was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour
what were the behaviour of the maternally deprived monkeys as adults
Harlow and colleagues also followed the monkeys as adults and they found that early maternal deprivation had a “permanent effect”
e.g. the monkeys reared with wire monkeys were the most dysfunctional;
however even those reared with a soft toy as a substitute did not develop normal social behaviour
They were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys
unskilled at mating
as mothers some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attached their children, even killing than in some cases
what did Harlow identify was the critical period for development
Like Lorenz, Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for this behaviour - a mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form
After this time, attachment is impossible and the damage done by early deprivation becomes irreversible
