animal studies

• what are the 2 animal studies


  Lorenz - imprinting

  Harlow - contact comfort vs food
• what was the procedure of Lorenz's study


  divided a clutch of eggs into 2: some hatched with their mother (control group) and others hatched in an incubator where they first saw Lorenz. the control group followed round their mother as expected, but the 2nd group followed Lorenz - even when the 2 groups were mixed together, they all went to their 'mother' figure
• what were the findings of Lorenz's study


  he discovered the critical period (12 hours for birds) where an attachment must be formed - if not, it may never be formed

  • concluded that imprinting is irreversible and long-lasting
• what did Lorenz find about sexual imprinting


  he found that imprinting has an effect on later mating preferences - for example, he raised a peacock in a reptile house where it attached to a tortoise. in later life, the peacock showed courtship to tortoises
• A03 Lorenz's imprinting study - informed human attachment

  findings of this research has helped support human findings, such as 'baby duck syndrome', where computer users become attached to their first computer

  • imprinting has meaningful uses
• A03 Lorenz's imprinting study - research support


  Regolin et al exposed chicks to simple shape combinations that move, and the chicks showed a preference to the moving shapes

  • young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint
• A03 Lorenz's imprinting study - not generalisable

  the research findings is not readily applicable to humans, as it is difficult to compare bird behaviour to humans - the mammalian attachment system is much more complex than birds, as they have more emotional attachments

  • limited usefullness
• what was the procedure of Harlow's study

  a group of monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth and placed in cages with 2 surrogate mothers: a wire mother and a cloth mother. half he monkeys received milk from the wire mother, and the other half received milk from the cloth mother. the monkeys would be faced with fearful stimuli
• what were the findings of Harlow's study


  both groups spent more time with the cloth mother, even if the wire mother dispensed the milk - the monkey would go to the wire mother when it was hungry, but then would go back to the cloth mother. the monkey would find comfort from the cloth mother when faced with fearful stimuli
• what did Harlow find about maternal deprivation


  he found that monkeys who were maternally deprived were timid, easily bullied and had difficulty mating. these behaviours were only found in monkeys who were alone for over over 90 days - there they have a 90-day critical period
• A03 Harlow‘s maternal separation study - informed human attachment

  research showed maternal deprivation affected monkeys into adulthood, which is similar in humans. for example, they have a lower IQ score and slower emotional development
• A03 Harlow‘s maternal separation study - practical applications

  this research can help us understand the urgency for helping orphaned and abandoned babies, as not developing an attachment in the critical period may have affects on later life
• A03 Harlow’s maternal separation study - not generalisable

  this research cannot be generalised to human behaviour, as humans have a much more complex attachment process
• A03 Harlow’s maternal separation study - ethical issues

  many of the monkeys were separated from their mothers after being born and then were put through stressful situations to determine their stress-response. this caused long-term distress to the monkeys