Animal studies

• Strength of Lorenz's research on attachment with animal studies: Research support. One strength is support for the concept of imprinting. For example a study by Vallortigara where chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations and then moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely. This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on the first moving thing within the critical period as predicted by Lorenz. L: Therefore this increases the validity of Lorenz's research as there is supporting research on his discovery of imprinting.
• Limitation of Lorenz's research on attachment using animal studies: generalisability to humans. One limitation of his studies is the ability to generalise findings on birds to humans. The mammal attachment system is a two-way system where not only the new-born gets attached the mother but also vice-versa unlike with birds. This suggests the mammalian attachment system is much more complex and quite different from birds. This means that it is probably innappropriate to apply Lorenz's ideas to humans his findings lacking in generalisability.
• Strength of Harlow's research on attachment with animal studies: Real-world application. One strength is that Harlow's research has real-world application. For example it helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that the lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development. This allows professionals to intervene to prevent poor developmental outcomes. This means that the value of his research is not just theoretical but also practical.
• Limitation of Harlow's research on attachment with animal studies: Generalisability to humans. One limitation is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans. Although Reseus monkeys are similar to us as they are mammals unlike Lorenz's birds as humans we are still much more complex. This means it may no be appropriate to generalise his findings to humans. This suggests his research is only specific to monkeys so lacks external validity.
• Who did research into imprinting with animal studies? Lorenz (1952)
• How did Lorenz investigate imprinting with animal studies? He randomly divided a large clutch of eggs half hatched with mother goose naturally and the other half hatched in incubator where the researcher is the first thing they saw.
• What were the findings of Lorenz's investigation on imprinting with animals? What were the conclusions? The incubator group followed the researcher everywhere whereas the conrol group (the hatched with mother group) followed their mother even when they were mixed together. From this he concluded that the geese must have imprinted on the first thing they saw after hatching. He also identified a critical period in which imprinting must take place and if it doesn't occur the chick didn't attach to a mother.
• What is imprinting? This phenomenon is when something will follow the first thing moving object they see.
• What are animal studies ? In psychology these are studies carried out on non-human animal species than on humans either for ethical or practical reasons.
• Who conducted an investigation into comfort contact on monkeys? Harlow (1958)
• How did Harlow carry out his investigation on contact comfort in rhesus monkeys? He tested the idea that soft objects serves some motherly functions. There was 16 baby monkeys in a cage with 2 wire model 'mothers' one exposed and the other clothe covered. One condition had milk dispensing out the clothe covered mother but the other had milk dispensing out the exposed model.
• What were the findings of Harlow's investigation into contact comfort on rhesus monkeys? What did he conclude? The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference of the exposed metal one no matter which model dispensed milk. From this they concluded that contact comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
• What did Harlow find in terms of maternal deprivation of the rhesus monkeys? The monkeys with plain mothers only were the most dysfunctional. However even those with cloth-covered mothers did not develop normal sociable behaviour. They were more aggressive and unskilled at mating. Also when they themselves became mothers would often neglect and sometimes even attack their children even to the point of death in some cases.
• What was the critical period for normal development in the rhesus monkeys? A mother has to be introduced within 90 days for attachment to form before the damage is irreversible.