Attachment L4 Flashcards
What is imprinting (A01)?
When a new born baby (animal or human) attaches to the first living thing they see at birth.
How did he study imprinting (A01)?
He split a group of goose eggs and made sure one group was born naturally next to their mother, the other seeing Lorenz as the first things he saw. he marked the goslings so he could determine between the groups and placed them under a box. He recorded their behaviour when the box was removed.
What did Lorenz find (A01)?
He found that the naturally born babies followed their mother about, while the incubator hatched goslings followed Lorenz.
What is a strength of the Lorenz study (A03)?
Evidence from other studies have showed imprinting in other species of birds, thus supporting Lorenz’s research on imprinting. Gution found leghorn chicks imprinted to yellow gloves they were exposed too while feeding.
What is a weakness of the Lorenz study (A03)?
There is an issue with generalising this study from birds to humans - might not be applicable.
What was the aim of Harlows study (A01)?
He wanted to prove mother love was not based on the feeding bond as predicted by learning theory.
What was the procedure of Harlows study (A01)?
(Using the two surrogate mothers) - He used 16 baby monkeys, four in each of four conditions:
1. A cage containing a wire mother with milk and towel mother with no milk
2. A cage containing a wire mother with no milk and a towel mother producing milk
The monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to test for mother preference during stress
What were the findings of Harlows study (A01)?
All 8 monkeys spent the majority of their time on the soft cloth mother, regardless if she was the one providing milk. Monkeys fed by wire mother only stayed with her long enough to get milk and then returned to the soft cloth mother. When frightened they clung to soft mother, and they were not confident enough to explore a new environment without the soft towel mother.
What were the long term effects of Harlows study (A01)?
The 8 monkeys developed abnormally, they froze or fled fled when approached by other monkeys. Showed irregular mating behaviour. If time was spent with other monkeys they could recover, but only if before 3 months old
What is a strength of Harlows study (A03)?
Schaffer and Emerson found that food is not necessary for attachment to form. They discovered that babies are often attached to people who play with them, rather then those who feed them. In 39% of cases even tho mother fed them babies were more attached to others.
What is a weakness of Harlows study (A03)?
Study is unethical. The monkeys were removed from their mothers, which is traumatic for them, and deliberately scared. This led to long-term emotional harm, seen through them freezing when encountering other monkeys.
What is a weakness of Harlows study (A03)?
It is problematic to deduce that these findings would apply to human infants. Humans are physiologically very different from monkeys as well having other influences that monkeys don’t have.
