LORENZ

• WHAT IS IMPRINTING?

  innate readiness to acquire certain behaviours during a critical period of development (develops behaviour pattern of recognition to its mother/ surrogate)
• SHORT TERM EFFECTS OF IMPRINTING?

  survival (protection and food)
• LONG TERM EFFECTS OF IMPRINTING?

  relationships (learn how to form relationships later in life)
• WHAT IS A CRITICAL PERIOD?

  time where behaviour (e.g. an attachment) needs to be formed if it is to be formed at all
• ADVANTAGES OF USING ANIMAL STUDIES WHEN STUDYING ATTACHMENT?

  • good insight to human behaviour
  • can be used to study animal infants in a way that would be unethical in humans
• DISADVANTAGES OF USING ANIMAL STUDIES TO STUDY ATTACHMENT?

  • must be cautious when extrapolating findings to attachments in human infants
  • ethical issues of separation
• WHY MUST WE BE CAUTIOUS WHEN EXTRAPOLATING DATA FROM ANIMAL ATTACHMENT STUDIES TO HUMANS?

  difference in nature and complexity of bond
• WHAT DO THE ETHICAL ISSUES OF SEPARATION DO?

  reduces reputation of psychological research
• AIM OF LORENZ'S RESEARCH?

  investigate imprinting in goslings
• DESIGN OF LORENZ'S STUDY?

  independent groups
• SAMPLE IN LORENZ'S EXPERIMENT?

  clutch of gosling eggs
• TWO CONDITIONS FOR LORENZ'S EXPERIMENT?

  1. Left with mother
  2. Put into incubator, saw mother
• PROCEDURE FOR LORENZ'S EXPERIMENT?

  1. Separated gosling eggs into two groups
  2. Tagged geese
  3. Put them in an upturned box (allows them to mix)
  4. Released them
  5. Measured who the goslings followed
• FINDINGS OF LORENZ'S EXPERIMENT?

  group naturally divided and the incubator goslings followed Lorenz (appeared to attach to him over their mother)
• CONCLUSION OF LORENZ'S EXPERIMENT?

  suggests animals born with a biological readiness to imprint on first large, moving object they see
• STRENGTH OF LORENZ'S STUDY?

  • supported by further studies
  • useful
  • provides support for Bowlby's proposition
• WEAKNESSES OF LORENZ'S STUDY?

  issue of extrapolation
• ISSUE OF EXTRAPOLATION IN LORENZ'S STUDY?

  • human mothers show more emotional attachment in young than bird mothers
  • not appropriate to generalise
  • contributed greatly to our understanding of imprinting
• NAME OF THE RESEARCHER THAT CARRIED OUT AN EXPERIMENT THAT FURTHER SUPPORTS LORENZ'S RESEARCH?

  Guiton
• WHAT EXPERIMENT DID GUITON DO?

  chicks imprinted on yellow washing up gloves tried to mate with them as adults
• WHAT DOES GUITON'S STUDY OF CHICKS SUGGEST?

  young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object during a critical period
• WHAT ARE THE ISSUES WITH LORENZ'S RESEARCH?

  must be cautious when extrapolating data from animal studies to human studies (humans have far more social and emotional factors)
• WHY IS LORENZ'S RESEARCH USEFUL?

  provides support for John Bowlby's proposition that attachment is innate
• WHAT WAS SHOWN BY LORENZ'S RESEARCH THAT PROVED BOWLBY'S PROPOSITION?

  goslings attached to Lorenz without reward of food, therefore evolutionary theory has more credit than learning theory
• WHAT DOES THE USE OF LORENZ'S RESEARCH AS PROOF OF BOWLBY'S PROPOSITION HAVE?

  real world application (used to support a fundamental theory)
• WHAT ARE THE ISSUES WITH LORENZ'S RESEARCH ON CHICKS?

  with experience, chicks learned to mate with their own kind (effects of imprinting may not be as long-lasting as believed)