Animal studies ( Lorenz + Harlow)

• What do psychologists mean by imprinting

  An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development , probably the first few hours after birth. if it doesnt happen at this time it will probably not happen
• What was Lorenz's aim

  To investigate imprinting in baby geese
• What was Lorenz's method?

  Lorenz divided a group of geese eggs into two groups:

  • One group was hatched with the mother goose in a natural environment

  • The other group hatched in an incubator

  Lorenz made sure that when the eggs in the incubator hatched, he was the first moving object they saw

  After this, he marked the two groups to distinguish them and returned them all to their natural mother
• What was lorenz's findings

  The goslings that had hatched in the incubator followed lorenz around, and the group that hatched with their mother followed her. This even occured when lorenz returned both groups to their natural mother - these geese quickly divided themselves up. Those that had hatched in the incubator continued to follow lorenz, while those who had hatched naturally continued to follow their mother
• What was lorenz's conclusion

  Golsings are programmed to imprint onto the first moving onject they see, highlighting the rapid formation of attachemnt in animals

  Suggesting that attachment is innate
• What was Harlow's aim

  To investigate the nature of attachment in baby Monkeys
• What was Harlow's method

  16 rhesus monkeys were placed in a cage with two surrogate mothers for 165 days

  • One was made of wire

  • The other was wrapped in cloth

  For half of the monkeys, the food (milk bottle) was attached to the wire mother, whereas for the other half the food was attached to the cloth mother . Harlow measured the amount of time that the infants spent with each mother. He also noted how the infants' responded when they were frightened by a mechanical teddy bear
• What were Harlow's results

  Harlow found that all of the monkeys spent their time cuddled to the soft cloth mother, regardless of whether it had the feeding bottle. Those fed on the wire mother only spent a short amount of time getting milk and then they returned to the cloth mother. when frightended all of the monkeys clung to the cloth mother
• What was Harlow's conclusion

  Harlows study suggests that monkeys develop attachment based on contact comfort not based on food. this would suggest that caregiver sensitivity is important for attachment
• Evaluations to animal studies (1)

  ❌ The generalisation of animal behaviour to human psychology is problematic. Humans and animals have very different biology and humans have various social and cultural experiences that inform their behaviour. Even Harlows findings on primates who are closer genetically to humans than lorenz's geese, should not automatically be thought to apply to humans
• Evaluations to animal studies (2)

  ✔️ Harlow's findings on contact have been highly influential. Bowlby argued similar to Macaques, infants crave comfort from their mothers, Attempting to form monotropic relationships. If this fails, then Bowlby claims that human infants will grow into adults with poor socialisation, similar to the Monkeys without a cloth mother
• Evaluations to animal studies (3)

  ✔️ Lorenz's findings on the critical period in geese have been highly influential; Bowlby argued that there is a similar critical period for humans, 6 to 30 months and if attachment doesn't form in that time it will result in perminant social problems

  ❌ However showing the difficluty of applying animal research to humans, later research on orphans suggest unlike geese, this period is 'sensitive' not critical, important, but later care can help with recovery
• Evaluations of animal studies (4)

  ✔️ There are practical applications of Harlow and Lorenz's work. Knowledge initially gained from these studies was later developed by Bowlby and has been applied to early childcare. For example, After birth, immediate physical contact between the mother and their babies is now encouraged and social service workers actively investigate cases of infant neglect, understanding its long-term harm
• Evaluations of animal studies (5)

  ❌ Harlow is criticised on ethical grounds for the harm caused to many intentionally orphaned primate infants and for causing high-stress levels. This suffering was real and public knowledge of these studies has harmed psychology's reputation

  ✔️ However, some psychologists argue that the long-term benefits to millions of human infants resulting from Harlow's research justify the studies when considering a cost-benefit analysis