animal studies in attachment

• What did Lorenz observe

  Imprinting
• how did Lorenz observe imprinting

  through newborn animals and their mothers
• what was lorenz’s procedure

  -Lorenz has 2 groups of goose eggs

  -1 group stayed with the mother & the other group was in an incubator
• what did Lorenz want to make sure happened when the eggs hatched

  the first moving thing the goslings saw was Lorenz
• after hatching were the goslings released and mixed or did Lorenz keep them?

  released and mixed
• when did lorenz’s first encounter with imprinted occur

  as a child when his neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling that followed him around everywhere
• what are the findings of lorenz’s experiment

  upon release..

  -those in the incubator group, went to Lorenz as if he was their mother

  -those with their mother, went and stayed with their mother
• what is needed for imprinting to take place

  a critical period
• what happens if their isn’t a critical period

  attachment doesn’t happen to the mother figure
• why is it important for species to know and recognise their caregivers

  for survival skills and know who’s lead to follow
• What is sexual imprinting

  The first moving thing as species sees they want to mate with.
• what is ethology

  study of animal behaviour
• what is a critical period

  imprinting must occur within a few hours after birth
• What is a strength for anima studies in attachment

  (P) there is support for critical periods

  (E) guiton found leghorn chicks imprinted onto a yellow rubber glove during the critical period, so they tried to mate with this.

  (e) but they engaged normal sexual activity when introduced to each other

  (l) therefore imprinting doesn’t happen immediately after hatching
• What is a weakness in animal studies and imprinting

  (p) lacks generalisability to humans

  (e) the first thing humans see when they’re born is the midwife or nurse

  (e) so imprinting doesn’t happen in this situation but the ‘mammalian attachment style’ is different to birds

  (l) therefore its only applicable to precocial species
• What was the main question in relation to harlows monkey experiment

  why did monkeys survive more when there is comfort present
• what was the sample for harlows monkeys

  16 rhesus baby monkeys that were separated from their mother at birth
• what was the procedure of harlows monkey experiment

  put in a cage with ‘two mothers’ one wired mother with food and one cloth mother with comfort
• what were the findings of harlows monkey experiment

  -The monkeys preferred the cloth mother even know she had no food

  -comfort is more important for the babies than food
• under the findings for this experiment, what effects happened because they couldn’t form attachments as mothers

  -when mixed with other species they were all aggressive and couldn’t night

  -killed their own babies because they couldn’t form attachments

  -attachmentment was impossible to form therefore damage was irreversible
• these effects in Harlow monkey experiment would happen if there wasn’t a what?

  a critical period with a mother figure present
• What is a strength of Harlows monkeys experiment

  (p) Real life application

  (E) it was used to help social workers when it came to child development

  (E) showed through the Monkees needing mother figure

  (L) therefore Harlows research is not just theoretical but also practical
• What is a limitation of Harlow experiment

  (p) cofounding variables

  (E) faces were different on each ’mother’ monkey

  (E) so it questioned the validity of Harlows work, going to the face they preferred

  (L) therefore the study can’t be trusted very far
• What is another limitation of Harlow experiment

  (P) Ethical issues

  (E) physical harm was showing through intentionally scaring the Monkeys and them having diarrhoea as well as psychological harm

  (E) harlow allowed the monkeys to kill their children to see what effect it had

  (L) therefore the effect it had was long-term distress to the monkeys