Animal studies

• What is the study which shows evidence for imprinting?

  Lorenz (1952):

  • Split a clutch of geese- one half hatched with mother and other hatched in incubator
  • Lorenz was the first moving object they encountered.
  • Lorenz recorded their behaviour
• Lorenz's findings

  Naturally hatched goslings followed mother, incubator ones followed Lorenz
• Which study showed evidence that attachment is not based on the feeding bond?

  Harlow (1958):

  • Reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire 'mothers'
  • Condition 1= wire mother dispensed milk
  • Condition 2= cloth mother dispensed milk
  • measured time spent with each mother and observed reactions of monkeys when frightened
• Harlows findings

  Regardless of which mother dispensed milk, monkeys always preferred the cloth mother
• Additional research support for imprinting

  Guiton (1966):

  Found that chicks exposes to yellow rubber gloves whilst being fed during their first few weeks, became imprinted on the gloves
• Criticism of imprinting - Guiton (1966)

  Found that he could reverse the imprinting in chickens that had initially tried to mate with the rubber gloves and found they could mate with their own species.
• Weakness' of Harlows Monkeys

  1. The appearance of the cloth mothers cold act as a confounding variable
  2. The results might lack generalisability
  3. Unethical
• Strength of Harlows monkeys

  Was conducted in a laboratory therefore had control over extraneous variables
• Two weakness' of Lorenz's study

  1. Guitons study - attachments were reversible and not monotropic
  2. Study may not generalise to humans