animal studies

Question 1

Lorenz: imprinting

Answer 1

• where bird species which are mobile from birth attach and follow the 1st moving object they see
• seen by him when he was first given a new duckling

Question 2

Lorenz: procedure

Answer 2

• randomly divided a group of goose eggs
• 1/2 hatched with the mother (control grp) & 1/2 hatched in an incubator (1st object they saw was Lorenz)

Question 3

Lorenz: findings

Answer 3

• control grp followed the mother and the group followed him
• even when they were mixed up they still did the same
• found that there’s a critical period imprinting needs to happen ( can be a little as 2hrs)
• if it didn’t occur then the chicks didn’t attach to a mother figure

Question 4

Lorenz: sexual imprinting

Answer 4

• looked at imprinting and adult mate preferences
• observed that if a bird imprinted on a human, they’d display courtship behaviour
• 1952 = observed a peacock that was reared in a reptile house
• 1st moving object they saw was giant tortoises
• as an adult it would only show courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises

Question 5

Lorenz AO3: generalisability (weakness)

Answer 5

• has helped us understand human attachment
• problem generalising the findings to human attachment development
• attachment system of mammals is different than a birds one
• e.g = mothers show more emotional attachment to their young than birds
• mammals may also be able to form attachments at any time but it may be easier at infancy

Question 6

Lorenz AO3: observations questioned (weakness)

Answer 6

• researchers have questioned the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour
• Guiton et al (1966) = chickens that imprinted on yellow washing-up gloves would try to mate with them but eventually learned they preferred to mate with other chickens
• suggests that the effects of imprinting aren’t as permanent as Lorenz thought

Question 7

Harlow: procedure (1958)

Answer 7

• tested the idea that a soft object can serve some functions of a mother
• reared 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model mothers
  condition 1 = milk was given by the wire mother
  condition 2 = milk was given by a cloth covered ‘mother’

Question 8

Harlow: findings

Answer 8

• babies cuddled the cloth covered mother instead of the wire one
• sought comfort from the cloth covered one when scared regardless of which one gave it milk
• showed that contact comfort was more important than food in attachment

Question 9

Harlow: maternally deprived monkeys as adults

Answer 9

• had severe consequences
  -monkey’s reared with wire mother were most dysfunctional
• those reared with a soft toy don’t develop normal social behaviours
• were more aggressive and bred less as they were unskilled at mating
• when they became mothers they neglected

Question 10

Harlow: critical period

Answer 10

• mother figure had to be introduced in 90 days for an attachment to form
• after it was impossible for an attachment to be formed
• damage done was irreversible

Question 11

Harlow AO3: theoretical value ( strength)

Answer 11

• had a huge impact on the understanding of mother-infant attachment
• informed psychologists that attachments aren’t formed due to feeding but due to contact comfort
• informed how early relationships with a parent will influence later relationship ( successful rearing of their own children)

Question 12

Harlow AO3: practical value ( strength)

Answer 12

• had application in various contexts such as social workers
• enabled social workers to identify and understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse & are now more able to prevent this from happening
• helpful to anyone in the childcare field as they can inform parents of the importance of contact comfort in the 1st weeks of life
• has highlighted the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos & breeding programmes

Question 13

Harlow AO3: ethical issues (weakness)

Answer 13

• been hugely criticised as the monkeys suffered a lot
• Harlow suggested that monkeys were similar enough to generalise findings to humans and suggests that there suffering was like human
• called the wire mothers ‘iron maidens’ after a medival torture device which suggests he was aware of the suffering of the animals