Animal studies

• Lorenz's Research- Method


  Lorenz randomly divided goose eggs. Half of them hatched in a natural environment with their mother. The others hatched in an incubator and the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz.
• Evaluation of Lorenz's research


  - research may not generalise to other animals let alone humans

  - observations can be questioned. E.g. the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour. Guiton et al found that some chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try and mate with them as well as adults. But with experience they learnt they preferred to mate with other chickens. This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not permanent as Lorenz believed.
• sexual imprinting


  Lorenz investigate the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preference. He observed that birds that imprinted on humans will later show courtship behaviour towards the humans. E.g. in a case study Lorenz described a peacock that had been reared in a retile house at a zoo. The first thing the peacock saw when born as a giant tortoise. As an adult the peacock showed courtship behaviour toward the giant tortoise therefore had undergone sexual imprinting.
• Harlow's Research evaluation


  -highly unethical

  + real life application for social workers as they understand the effects of neglect and abuse

  +can generalise better to humans that Lorenz's study of goose
• Harlow's research- Lorenz


  In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was dispensed from the plain wire mother whereas in the second condition milk was dispensed from the cloth covered mother.
• what is the importance of comfort contact

  Harlow observed that new-born kept alone in a bare cage usually died but survived if they had something soft like a cloth
• Maternally deprived monkeys as adults (Harlow)

  Harlow followed the monkeys into adult hood to see if the effects of not having a real mother, being maternally deprived had any permanent effects. The researchers found sever consequences. The monkeys reared by only the wire mother were the most dysfunctional even those reared with the cloth mother did not develop normal social behaviour. They were more aggressive less sociable and bred less often than other monkeys (as they were unskilled at mating). As mothers the deprived monkeys neglected their children and sometimes attacked their children even killing them
• the critical period for normal development (Harlow)

  A mother had to be introduced to the infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible
• Lorenz's Research - Findings

  Incubator group followed Lorenz and the control group followed the mother duck. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching. if they did not form an attachment in this time Lorenz found that the chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure
• Lorenz's Research - Conclusion

  The goslings that followed Lorenz showed imprinting whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see. Lorenz said that this also applies to humans.
• Harlow's research - Findings

  it was found that the monkeys cuddled and sought comfort when frightened from the cloth mother over the wire mother even when the wire mother dispensed milk.
• Harlow's findings- Conclusion

  Contact comfort is more important to monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.