A03

• Natural experiments - High ecological validity
• Lorenz study supports?

  Idea of imprinting
• What did Guiton show?

  That imprinting can be reversed through socialisation by their own species
• Why was animal studies conducted?

  Due to ethical issues with studying human attachment
• Lorenz study influenced who?

  Bowlby and Ainsworth with human attachments
• Criticism: What was there a limited opportunity of?

  Goslings to choose their imprinted parents
• Why is it a limitation to use animal studies and to understand human attachments?

  There's a difference in brain development, cognitive abilities and social complexity
• Issue with generalising findings and conclusions from birds to humans?

  • The mammalian attachment system is quite different from that of birds
  • For example: mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their young
  • This means that it isn't appropriate to generalise Lorenz's ideas to humans
• Supports the concept of imprinting?

  • Guiton (66) found that chicks imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults
  • This suggests that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development
  • This suggests that there's an innate mechanism causing a young animal to imprint on a moving object during in the critical period of development
• Some of Lorenz's observations and conclusions have been questioned?

  • Guiton (66) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing-up gloves tried to mate with them as adults
  • But with experience they learned to mate with their own kind
  • This study suggests that the effects of imprinting aren't as long-lasting as Lorenz believed