Animal Studies

    Cards (26)

    • What were the two key animal studies?

      Lorenz 1935
      Harlow 1998
    • What is the critical window of development?

      The concept that attachment needs to be made during this time frame for normal development to occur
    • What animal did Lorenz study?

      Baby geese/ goslings
    • What animal did Harlow study?
      Baby Rhesus monkeys
    • What 2 groups of goslings did Lorenz have?

      Hatched with natural mother.
      Hatched with Lorenz
    • What did the goslings do immediately?
      Follow the first animate object seen with 13 to 16 hours of hatching.
    • Why do goslings imprint after a matter of minutes?
      They have increased mobility so a it forms immediate attachment as a biological adaptation to promote survival.
    • What does imprinting affect?

      It is long lasting and irreversible.
      It affects the later mate.
    • What is it called when the mate is affected by imprinting?
      Sexual imprinting
    • What is a study to show sexual imprinting?

      Imprinting with a tortoise and a baby peacock and later in life peacock did not want to mate with other peacocks but with tortoise
    • What did the monkeys in Harlow’s study have?
      Baby monkeys had a wire mother and a cloth mother.
    • What was the procedure of Harlow’s study?
      8 Infant rhesus monkeys studied for 165 days.
      Measured attachment by how much time was spent with either the wire or cloth surrogate mother and amount of time spent crying for real mother.
    • What did Harlow find?
      Baby monkeys spent majority of time with the cloth mother regardless of where the food dispenser was.
    • What were the 2 conditions of Harlow‘s study?

      4 baby monkeys had a wire food-dispensing mother
      4 baby monkeys had a cloth food-dispensing mother
    • What type of attachment did the baby monkeys show toward the cloth mother?
      Secure based behaviour
    • What was the aim of Harlow’s follow up study?

      to investigate adulthood affects of monkeys who had been deprived of a real mother
    • What did Harlow find in his follow up study?
      All the monkeys with no real mother were more aggressive, less sociable and unskilled at mating.
      Those with only a wire mother were more dysfunctional.
    • What were the conclusions of Lorenz’s study?

      Evidence for the critical period.
      Shows early attachments can predict future bonds.
      Proof for attachment having a biological basis.
    • What were the conclusions of Harlow’s study?

      Food is not as crucial as comfort when forming attachment.
      Shows early attachment can predict long term social development.
      Animals have greater needs than food.
    • What are the ethical issues with these studies?

      No protection from harm psychologically & physically
      As baby animals were removed from natural environments and mothers.
    • What are the issues with generalisability?
      Animals are not Humans.
      Humans are more cognitively developed and have a higher level of complexity.
      Not capable of abstract thought
    • What is research support for Lorenz?

      Regolin & Vallortigara 1995
    • What was Regolin & Vallortigara‘s study?

      Baby chicks were exposed to simple rotating shapes when hatched.
      When given the option chicks always returned to original shape they imprinted on.
    • What do all the imprinting studies show?

      It is an innate mechanism to imprint on initial moving shape seen within critical window
    • How does Harlow’s research have real world value?

      Helps social workers & clinical psychologists understand importance of physical boding during critical window of a child.
    • What did Howe 1998 suggest?

      If physical bonding is not given during critical window child will not develop normally
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