Animal studies of attachment Flashcards
(13 cards)
What is imprinting
An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother, which takes place during a specific time in development.
What is the critical period
The time period in which printing must occur to avoid terrible irreversible consequences
What is sexual imprinting
Courtship behaviour towards whatever species they imprint on.
Procedure of Lorenz
Gosling eggs were split into a mother group and incubator group, who saw Lorenz first and imprinted on him. He put both groups together with him and the mother and wanted to see who they follow .
Findings of Lorenz
Incubator group followed Lorenz and showed no recognition of the mother goose. He found imprinting must happen in an early critical period, and that it is irreversible and long lasting. Animals chose mate preferences based on who they imprinted on.
Lorenz’s study being extrapolated to apply to humans
The findings aren’t applicable to humans as mammalian attachment differs, and show more emotional attachment. Decreases usefulness.
Lorenz’s assumptions on sexual imprinting
Guiton found chickens who imprinted on rubber gloves learned to mate with other chickens, contradicting and discrediting the key assumption of the research.
Lorenz and Harlow ethical issues
Monkeys suffered trauma and were separated, had long lasting issues. Similar to humans= humanlike suffering
Geese were separated from their mother and were unable to mate with their species.
Negative perception of psychology- less trusted.
Procedure of Harlow’s monkeys
Two wire monkeys- a milk mother and a cloth mother- were placed in a cage with a baby monkey (8) and studied for 165 days. They were recorded as they were scared, to see which monkey they preferred.
Findings of Harlow’s monkey
All 8 monkeys spent 23 hours a day with cloth mother and went to her when she was scared. Long term consequences included the monkeys neglecting their children once they became adults and being socially abnormal.
Contradictory explanation to Harlow’s monkeys
Attachments are formed when an infant receives food as they learn to love the person who feeds them. This contradicts the key assumption by Harlow.
Counfounding variable of Harlow’s monkeys
The two heads were different meaning one could just be more scary, and the wire could have been sharper on one than the other. We cannot establish a cause and effect.
