animal studies

• Lorenz (1952)

  • Lorenz’s research investigated the concept of imprinting on geese
  • Lorenz conducted an experiment in which Goose eggs were divided randomly and half of the goslings were hatched with their mother (who became the first moving object they saw) and other half in an incubator (where Lorenz became the first moving object they saw)
  • Lorenz then recorded their behaviour
  • the goslings proceeded to follow the first moving object that they saw after hatching.
• explain some further findings of Lorenz's experiment

  • the formation of attachment/imprinting must occur within a very specific critical period - of a couple of hours
  • This process is irreversibleIf they didn’t imprint within this time, they never would.
• HARLOW's procedure

  • studied 8 orphaned rhesus monkeys
  • period of 165 days
  • controlled environment- caged from infancy and reared with two surrogate mothers -
  • one plain wire, food dispensing and cloth-covered (no food)
  • time spent with each day with mother was recorded
  • monkey's fear reponse obeserved when scared with a mechanical bear
• Harlow's findings

  • Every monkey spent the most time with the cloth mother
  • only spent short amount of time with wire mother, when neccesary for food
  •  would show attachment behaviours (clinging onto her) towards just cloth mother when frightened,
  • kept one leg on her for reassurance when playing with new objects (secure base)
  • attachment are formed based on contact comfort not feeding
  • monkeys in isolation with the surrogate mothers all displayed dysfunctional adult behaviour, including:

  1. socially abnormal- trouble interacting with other monkeys

  c) They had difficulty with mating

  d) The females were inadequate mothers