Animal Studies

• Imprinting

  A process by which birds attach to and follow the first moving object they see after hatching
• Lorenz found the incubator group followed him, the control group followed the mother
• Critical period

  Time frame in which imprinting has to happen or it won't happen at all - end up not attaching themselves to a mother figure
• Harlow's study- procedure

  1. Removed 16 baby rhesus monkeys from mothers

  2. Reared them with two surrogate mothers - one wire, one wire covered in cloth - both dispensed milk

  3. Observed how long babies spent with each and their behaviour
• What is sexual Imprinting?

  -> imprinting then displaying courtship behaviour to the animal imprinted on
• What did Lorenz observe?

  -> When birds imprinted on humans he saw that later they would display courtship behaviour towards humans
• What was the case study on sexual imprinting?

  -> Peacocks

  1. Peacocks were reared in a reptile zoo house
  2. When hatched the first moving object they saw was giant tortoises
  3. Later displayed courtship behaviour to giant tortoises -> suggested sexual imprinting
• Lorenz study - procedure

  1. Got a clutch of goose eggs
  2. Randomly divided into two groups
  3. One group left with mother
  4. Other group placed in incubator
  5. Observed which group followed Lorenz or the mother
• Harlow Study - Findings

  -> Babies spent most time with cloth mother, sought comfort from her when frightened

  -> 'contact comfort' is more important than food in attachment behaviour
• What did Harlow want to see in the monkeys adulthood?

  If those deprived of a mother had permanent effects on the monkey
• What were those a reared with the wired mother?

  the most dysfunctional
• What happened to those that reared with the cloth mother?

  -> didn't develop social behaviour

  • was more aggressive and less social
  • bred less as they lacked mating skills
• What happened when those maternally deprived became mothers?

  -> neglected their own child and attacked them - sometimes killed them
• LIMITATION (Lorenz) - Generalisability

  -> finding did influence our understanding of human development

  -> does lack generalising findings of birds to humans

  >> Mammalians attachment systems are different to birds

  • Mammalians mothers are more emotionally attached to their child than birds are
  • Mammalians can form attachments at any time

  ->>NOT appropriate to generalise any of Lorenz ideas to humans
• LIMITATION (Harlow) - Ethical Issues

  -> Criticised for causing harm and suffering for the monkeys at a young age just for research

  >> was aware of the suffering and referred the wired mothers as 'iron maidens - medieval torture device

  -> HOWEVER - rhesus is seen similar to humans - able to generalise Harlow's ideas to humans