Animal Studies

Question 1

Lorenz (Procedure)

Answer 1

• Observed imprinting
• Procedure - Randomly divided a large number of goose eggs - Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose - the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz

Question 2

Lorenz (Findings)

Answer 2

• Findings - Incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere, whereas the control group followed their mother - when mixed up the control group followed mother and incubator group followed Lorenz
• Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place - if imprinting doesn’t occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks didn’t attach themselves to a mother figure

Question 3

Lorenz (Sexual imprinting)

Answer 3

• Observed that birds who imprinted on humans would later display courtship behaviours towards humans

Question 4

Lorenz - Evaluation - Strength

Answer 4

• Research support
• Other studies observed chicks that were exposed to a range of shape combinations that were moved in front of them and they found that the chicks followed the original most closely

Question 5

Lorenz - Evaluation - Limitation

Answer 5

• Unable to generalise to humans
• mammalian attachment system is more complex than a birds - e.g att in mammals is a two-way process (between mother and child)
• Means it’s probably not appropriate to generalise to humans

Question 6

Harlow (Procedure)

Answer 6

• Observed newborn monkeys - importance of contact comfort
• Tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother
• In 1 experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model mothers
• In 1 condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in the 2nd condition the milk was dispensed by a cloth covered mother

Question 7

Harlow (Findings)

Answer 7

• Baby monkeys cuddled and sought comfort from the cloth covered mother in preference to the plain wire mother regardless of which mother dispensed milk
• Showed that contact comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to att behaviour

Question 8

Harlow (Maternally deprived monkeys as adults)

Answer 8

• Harlow followed the monkeys to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect
• Researchers found severe consequences
• Monkeys reared with the plain wire mother only were the most dysfunctional
• But even those with the cloth covered mother didn’t develop normal social behaviour
• They were more aggressive and less sociable and they also bred less
• When they became mothers some of them neglected their child and others attacked their children

Question 9

Harlow (Critical period for normal development)

Answer 9

• A mother had to be introduced to a young monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form
• After this time att was impossible and damage done by deprivation was irreversible

Question 10

Harlow - Evaluation - Strength

Answer 10

• Real world value
• It has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development - allows them to prevent poor outcomes
• Means Harlow’s research is not just theoretical but practical

Question 11

Harlow - Evaluation - Limitation

Answer 11

• Unable to generalise to humans
• More similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds - but humans behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys