Animal studies

• What were Lorenz's procedures?

  1. halved a clutch of goose eggs
  2. one half hatched with the mother, other half hatched in an incubator and the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz
  3. Lorenz marked the goslings to indicate which group they are from, then he let them out
  4. Lorenz walked past them
  5. He recorded what happened when he walked past
• Lorenz found that his group of goslings followed him, the others looked and waited for their mother figure
• We carry out animal studies to study attachment but we have to be cautious when generalising then results to humans
• Imprinting is a genetic program to follow the first thing they see to survive and become attached, its an innate process
• The critical period is the first 30 hours of a goslings life where imprinting needs to take place. They have to become attached otherwise they don't ever form an attachment and try to fend for themselves.
• Lorenz's results suggest that goslings are imprinted to follow the first thing that moves. Therefore nature is the cause of attachment and not nurture.
• Why would it make sense from an evolutionary point of view for the offspring to be programmed to get attached?


  So they can follow their mother figure and she can protect them from harm and they can survive and breed themselves. Personal and selfish gene theory.
• One weakness of Lorenz's study is that the results haven't been fully replicated. Guiton did an experiment on chicks and found that they imprint on the first thing that they see but unlike Lorenz he found that this imprinting could be reversed. Guiton's findings don't support the idea that attachments are monotropic since the baby chicks could form more than one attachment. This suggests that his findings aren't reliable
• Evaluate a weakness of Lorenz's study

  The results may not generalise to humans. This is because he conducted the experiment on baby geese who may have different mechanisms of attachment to human babies as humans are more complex. Baby geese are born basically already functioning and walking around as babies are born useless and can't walk or feed themselves and are totally dependent.
• Harlow's procedures was separating 16 monkeys from their mothers immediately after birth and placed into cages with access to 2 surrogate mothers. One made of wire and one covered in a towel. 8 monkeys could get milk from the wire mother and the other 8 monkeys could get milk from the cloth mother.
• Harlow found that the monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother even if she had no milk. The infants in the second group would only go to the wire mother when hungry and returned to the cloth monkey for the rest of the day. If a frightening object was introduced, the infant took refuge with the cloth mother and explore more when the cloth mother was present.
• What differences in behaviour did Harlow observe between the monkeys that had grown up with the surrogate mother and those with a normal mother?

  1. they were more timid
  2. They didn't know how to behave with other monkeys and could be aggressive
  3. Difficulty mating
  4. Females were inadequate mothers and some killed their offspring

  These behaviours were seen in the monkeys who were left with the surrogate mothers for more than 90 days. For those left less than 90 days, the effects could be reversed if placed in a normal environment where they could form an attachment
• Harlow concluded that "contact comfort" was more important than food in the formation of attachment however its not sufficient for healthy development.
• Harlow concluded that early maternal deprivation leads to emotional damage but the impact could be reversed in monkeys if an attachment was made before the end of the critical period. However if maternal deprivation lasted after the end of the critical period then no amount of exposure could alter the emotional damage that had occurred.
• Harlow's findings can be applied to humans with caution as humans and monkeys are different species but are still genetically similar however humans take 8-9 months to develop.
• Harlow's findings can be used to understand the causes and effects of depression due to lack of socialisation at a young age.
• What are the ethical issues of Harlow's study?

  1. Psychological impact on monkeys for the rest of their lives as they didn't develop normally
  2. They couldn't consent
  3. Monkeys suffered in isolation and it also made then aggressive and cause harm to other monkeys
• Strengths of Harlow's study are:

  1. real-world application on understanding deprivation outcomes for children
• Weaknesses of Harlow's study are:

  1. generalisability
  2. ethical issues