Animal studies of attachment

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  • Created by: IvyVega
  • Created on: 10-05-18 12:37
procedure- part 1- Lorenz
Konrad Lorenz randomly divided 12 goose eggs, half hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment and the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lornez.
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procedure- part 2- Lorenz
mixed all goslings together to see whom they would follow. Lorenz also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour.
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Findings- part 1-Lorenz
Incubator group followed Lorenz, control group followed the mother. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place. Sexual imprinting also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable characteristics.
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procedure- part 1- Harlow
Harry Harlow reared 16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model mothers, in one condition, milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother, in the second, it was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother. the monkeys preferences were measured.
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procedure- part 2- Harlow
as a further measure of attachment like behaviour, the reactions of the monkeys to more frightening situations were observed. Harlow also continued to study the monkeys who had been deprived of their real mother into adulthood.
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findings- part 1- Harlow
baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and regardless of which dispensed milk. this suggests that contact comfort was of more importance than food when it cam to attachment behaviour.
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findings- part 2- harlow
the monkeys sought comfort from the cloth wire mother when frightened. as adults, the monkeys that had been deprived of their real mothers suffered severe consequences: they were more aggressive, less sociable and less skilled in mating than others.
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limitation 1- lorenz- cant generalise findings.
the mammalian attachment attachment system is quite different from that in birds. this means that it is not appropriate to generalise Lorenz's ideas of humans.
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strength 1- lorenz- support for imprinting
Guiton (1966) found that chicks imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults. this suggests that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of developmen
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strength 1- harlow- practical applications
it has helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse and so intervene to prevent it. we also understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild.
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limitation 1- harlow- can't generalise
although monkeys are clearly more similar to humans than Lorenz's geese, they are not human. psychologists disagree on the extent to which studies of non-human primates can be generalised to humans.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

mixed all goslings together to see whom they would follow. Lorenz also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour.

Back

procedure- part 2- Lorenz

Card 3

Front

Incubator group followed Lorenz, control group followed the mother. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place. Sexual imprinting also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable characteristics.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Harry Harlow reared 16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model mothers, in one condition, milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother, in the second, it was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother. the monkeys preferences were measured.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

as a further measure of attachment like behaviour, the reactions of the monkeys to more frightening situations were observed. Harlow also continued to study the monkeys who had been deprived of their real mother into adulthood.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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