Animal Studies

Question 1

What did Lorenz discover?

Answer 1

Examined the phenomenon of imprinting in non-human animals

Question 2

How did Lorenz discover imprinting? (Method)

Answer 2

Lorenz divided goose eggs into two batches, the control group was hatched naturally by mother whilst the other hatched in an incubator making Lorenz the first large imprinting object the goslings saw. The following behaviour of either mother goose or Lorenz was recorded. Lorenz marked the gosling based upon condition and place them under upside down box and removed box and the follow behaviour was recorded again.

Question 3

What was found when Lorenz looked at imprinted (Results)

Answer 3

After birth Naturally- hatched goslings followed mother goose, incubator hatched followed Lorenz. The same occurred after moving box. Imprinting only occurs within critical 4-25 hours of hatching, relationship persisted and became irreversible.

Imprinting is a form of attachment

Question 4

Brief evaluation of Lorenz?

Answer 4

• Cannot generalise results to humans
• Later research questioned Lorenz’ conclusions about irreversibility of imprinting (Guiton et al)

Question 5

In depth evaluation of Lorenz?

Answer 5

TBC

Question 6

What was the aims of Harlows research?

Answer 6

To examine the extent to which contact comfort and food influences attachment behaviour in baby monkeys

Question 7

What was the procedure of Harlows research?

Answer 7

Constructed two surrogate mothers one harsh “wire mother” and one soft “towelling mother)
Sample of 16 across 4 caged conditions
1. “Wire mother” dispensing milk and “towelling mother” no milk
2. “Wire mother” no milk and “towelling mother” dispensing milk
3. “Wire mother” dispensing milk
4. “towelling mother” dispensing milk

Amount of time spent with mother recorded and amount of time feeding and monkeys stress reaction (loud noise) response recorded

Question 8

What was found and concluded from Harlows research?

Answer 8

• Babies preferred contact with soft towelling mother, even when being fed by wire mother they’d stretch to towelling mother for comfort
• Only the wire mother showed stress diarrhoea
• In stress situation babies would cling to towelling monkey
• Innate drive to seek contact comfort and emotional need for security over food contrasting learning theory explanation

Question 9

Brief evaluation of Harlows research?

Answer 9

• Large practical value and real world applications
• Critiqued for the ethics of research
• Issues applying research to humans

Question 10

In depth evaluation of Harlow?

Answer 10

TBC