Animal studies
LORENZ
HARLOW
IMPRINTING
Procedure- Divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half hatched with mother in natural environment, other half hatched in incubator with Lorenz being first animate object they saw.
Findings- Incubator group followed Lorenz, other followed the mother. Shows that birds followed the first animate object they saw no matter what species. Identified a critical period in which this must happen, can be as low as a few hours after birth.
SEXUAL IMPRINTING
Investigated effect of imprinting on adult mating preferences. Found birds in his half would often display courtship towards humans, and completed a case study on a peacock. Found when it viewed tortoises as its first animate figure, it would only display courtship to these tortoises.
CONTACT COMFORT
New borns in cages often died unless given something soft to cuddle
Procedure- Harlow tested the idea that soft objects serve some functions of the mother. Reared 16 monkeys, one with a wire model milk dispenser, the other with a cloth covered one
Findings- Monkeys cuddled soft object, and would seek comfort. Where frightened of wire model whether it dispensed milk or not, shows importance of contact comfort.
Maternally deprived monkeys as adults- Followed monkeys in adulthood- found that monkeys were highly dysfunctional, more aggressive and less sociable, and bred less due to being unskilled at mating.
Critical period for normal development- 90 days
EVALUATION
EVALUATION
Practical value- Helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and could therefore intervene, and also on captive breeding programme within zoos for the monkeys.
Ethics- monkeys were harmed. Huge suffering for lifetime periods.
Theoretical value- Revolutionary ideas on mother child attachment in humans
Generalisable to humans?- Vast differences between humans and birds in how we form attachment to parental figures.
Questionable observations- Guiton imprinted a yellow washing up glove on chickens, found they went on to attempt to mate with them but were able to move on to other chickens- may not be a permanent impact.