Animal Studies- Topic 3 Flashcards
(10 cards)
Why do we carry out animal studies?
They have been used to look at the formation of early bonds between non-humans parents and their offspring. Psychologists are interested in this bc attachment behaviours is common to a range of species so findings can be applied to attachment in humans.
What are the advantages of using animal studies?
-avoids harm to human beings
-no potential for demand characteristics
-practical advantages as amimals have shorter life spans allowing research to be conducted over a full lifespan
What are the disadvantages of animal studies?
-ethical concerns.
-unnatural conditions.
-lack generalisability as animal studies may not be overly applicable to humans.
What is imprinting ?
It’s a type of learning where a young animal forms an attachment to the first moving object they see after birth. It happens quick and it’s often irreversible.
What is a critical period ?
A specific timeframe in an animal’s early development when imprinting must happen if attachment doesn’t happen in this period its unlikely to happen at all.
What was Lorenz imprinting study?
Lorenz took a large clutch of goose eggs and kept them until they were about to hatch out. Half of the eggs were then placed under the goose mother, while Lorenz kept the other half himself. When the goose hatched he imitated a mother’s ducks quacking sounds and so the birds regarded him as the mother.
What was Lorenz imprinting findings?
-geese follows the first moving object they see, during a 12/17 hours critical period after hatching. This process is known as imprinting. Suggesting attachment is innate and programmed genetically.
-imprinting has consequences for both short term like survival and long term like forming internal templates for later relationships.
What was Lorenz sexual imprinting investigation ?
The relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences. He observed that birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans. In his study he described how a peacock had been reared in a reptile house and the first moving object the peacock saw after hatching was a tortoise and as an adult this peacock would only direct courtship behaviour towards tortoises. Lorenz concluded that the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.
What are some evaluations of Lorenz ?
-his findings can’t be generalised to humans as human attachment develops slowly and humans are more complex than animals.
-Lorenz research has support for the concept of imprinting.
HARLOW.
