animal studies Flashcards
(10 cards)
define imprinting
an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development. If this doesn’t happen at this time it will probably not happen
what was Lorenz procedure and what did he study?
- he studied imprinting
Randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs -
Control Group: ½ hatched with the mother
Experimental Group: ½ hatched in an incubator where the first
thing they saw was Lorenz.
Findings:
Placed them all under an up turned box - control group
followed the mother, experimental group followed Lorenz =
imprinting
Lorenz identified a critical period (up to 5 days) in which
imprinting needs to take place. Depending on species this can
be as brief as a few hours - no imprinting - no attachment to
mother figure.
what was lorenz further research
lorenz investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences eg birds who had imprinted on humans would display courtship behaviours towards humans
Randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs -
Control Group: ½ hatched with the mother
Experimental Group: ½ hatched in an incubator where the first
thing they saw was Lorenz.
Findings:
Placed them all under an up turned box - control group
followed the mother, experimental group followed Lorenz =
imprinting
Lorenz identified a critical period (up to 5 days) in which
imprinting needs to take place. Depending on species this can
be as brief as a few hours - no imprinting - no attachment to
mother figure.
evaluating lorenz’s study :(
–Some of Lorenz’s conclusions have been questioned. For
example Guiton et.al found that chickens imprinted on yellow
washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults (as
Lorenz would have predicted) but that with experience they
eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens.
This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating
behaviour is not as permanent as Lorenz believed.
Lorenz was interested in imprinting in birds. Although some of
his findings have influenced our understanding of human
development, there is a problem generalising from findings
on birds to humans. For example, mammalian mothers show
more emotional attachment to young than do birds.
what did Harry Harlow study?
he challenged the cupboard love theory and he suggested that attachment isn’t just built on the fact that the baby associates milk a primary reinforces with the mother
harry harlows procedure
Procedure:
16 baby Rhesus monkeys reared in isolation with two wire model
‘mothers’.
Condition 1 - wire ‘mother’ dispenses milk. (food)
Condition 2 - cloth covered ‘mother’ dispenses milk. (contact
comfort)
what were the findings for harry harlows research?
the rhesus monkeys spent more time with the surrogate mother that provided contact comfort than the mother than provided food ( dispensed milk around 18 hours each day and became more attached to the cloth mother
in another variation where Lorenz had induced fear into the Rhesus monkeys he found that when there was no surrogate mothers present the monkeys would curl up into a ball but when there was a surrogate mother in the presence of fear the rhesus monkey would run and seek comfort from the contact mother which suggests that the contact mother acts as secure base in times of fear and a base to explore the unknown ( the rhesus monkey after fear declined ) there explore the fear stimulus
what to conclude about harry harlows research
contact comfort was more important that food when it came to attachment behvaiours
what long term findings were there from harry harlows research?
Harlow and his colleagues followed the monkeys who had been deprived from a real mother into adult hood - he found that the monkeys ended up being dysfunctional - motherless monkeys and showed antisocial behaviours and were MORE aggressive, this research highlights the importance of foming an attachment during the critical period like lorenz which was 90 days for the monkeys and without forming an attachment there would be irreversible long lasting effects.
what are the positives of harry harlows study?
Harlow’s findings had an influential effect on psychologists
understanding of human-infant attachment. Most
importantly, Harlow showed that attachment does not
develop as the result of being fed by a mother figure but as a
result of contact comfort. Harlow also showed the
importance of the quality of early relationships for later social
development.
The insight from Harlow’s research has had important
applications in a range of practical contexts. For example, it
has helped social workers understand risk factors in child
neglect and abuse and so intervene to prevent it. - maternal
deprivation - followed monkeys into adulthood. Severe
consequences including dysfunctional / less sociable /
unskilled at mating / neglected own young.
