animal studies

• animal studies:

  • studies on non human animal species rather than on humans due to ethical/practical reasons
  • looks at the bond between non human parents + their offspring - helps understand human behaviour
• lorenz's geese:

  • randomly divided large clutch of goose eggs
  • half hatched with mother goose + half in incubator (first moving object was Lorenz)
• Lorenz's geese findings:

  • imprinted on whoever they saw first upon hatching - would follow mother goose or lorenz
  • lorenz identified critical period: time where the first strong attachment must occur - depending on species they dont attach if its missed
• sexual imprinting:

  • relationship between imprinting + adult mate preferences - birds that imprinted on human often display courtship towards humans
  • Lorenz - peacock reared into reptile house of zoo, saw giant tortoises when attached - adult peacock only direct courtship to giant tortoises
• EVALUATION: generalisability from birds to animals

  • attachment in birds different from animals - mammals dont imprint as theyre less developed
  • mammal mothers show more attachment + caring role - differences in attachments among animals
  • not appropriate to generalise Lorenz's ideas to humans
• EVALUATION: questionable observations

  • Guilton et al - chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves + tried to mate - later learned to mate with chickens
  • Lorenz suggested imprinting was permanent, conflict regarding observations
  • permanence of imprinting -based attachment challenged by counter research
• love:

  • maternal bond between mother and child
• harlow:

  • began to investigate nature of bond through 16 monkeys and surrogate mother made of wire or wood covered with cloth
• Harlow's procedure:

  • condition 1- wire mother dispenses milk
  • conditon 2 - cloth heated mother
• Harlow's findings:

  • monkeys preferred cloth over wire monkey - ran for protection and comfort no matter which one provided food
  • conclusion: comfort is more important than food
• maternal deprivation:

  • studied monkeys deprived of a real mother in adulthood
• impact of maternal deprivation:

  • aggressive + antisocial
  • autistic like behaviour
  • unable to mate normally
  • neglected, attacked or killed young
• Harlow's critical period:

  • 90 days
• EVALUATION: theoretical value when applied to real life parenting

  • profound effect on understanding human infant attachment
  • Harlow - showed close contact enables attachment not just nursing + importance of quality of early attachment for later social development
  • Harlow's research has been helpful in attachment analysis
• EVALUATION: practical value

  • Howe - research was helpful for social workers understanding risk factors in child neglect + abuse
  • practical implications for animals - understand importance of attachment figures in zoos for baby monkeys + breeding programmes
  • can use research to have a positive impact on society
• EVALUATION: ethical issues

  • monkeys faced suffering - considered human like, suggests suffering couldve been human like
  • harlow knew about potential suffering - named wire monkey -iron maiden' after medieval torture device + isolation tanks 'pits of despair'
  • argument that importance of findings outweigh ethical issues - but problematic to ignore levels of suffering