4. animal studies

research on animals

1. lorenz 1952

2. harlow 1958

lorenz procedure

• set up a classic experiment

• randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs

• half were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment, other half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was lorenz

findings

• incubator group followed lorenz everywhere, control group followed the mother goose - even happened when the two groups were mixed up

• phenomenon is called imprinting which is whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see

• he identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place which can be as brief as a few hours after birth - if imprinting does not occur within that time he found the chicks did not attach themsleves to a mother figure

sexual imprinting

also investigated relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences

• observed birds imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans

• in a case study he described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects it saw were giant tortoises - as an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises

concluded the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting

evaluation

1. research support

2. applications

3. generalisability

4. ethical issues

research support

• research support for his findings on imprinting

• regolin & vallortigara 1995 found that chicks imprinted on shapes that moved, supporting lorenz’s idea that young animals are born with an innate drive to imprint

• strengthens reliability of his findings showing imprinting happens in a variety of species, reinforcing its nature as an instinctual process

applications

• imprinting research has applications to understanding human behaviour

• research by seebach 2005 linked imprinting to human behaviours such as early interactions with computers and the idea of baby duck syndrome

• while human attachment is more complex, imprinting concepts may still help explain aspects of social bonding

generalisability

• findings from birds may not apply to humans

• mammalian attachment is different from bird attachment, as it is a two way process where both mother and baby form bonds

• suggests his conclusions may not be directly applicable to human attachment

ethics

• ethical concerns regarding animal treatment

• his imprinting research involved separating gooslings from their biological mothers, potentially causing distress and disrupting their natural development

• raises concerns about their wellbeing as they may have experineced long term behavioural consequences due to imprinting on an inappropriate figure (sexual imprinting)

• highlights the ethical dilemma in animal research - whether the scientific benefits outweigh the potential harm to the subjects

harlows procedure

• tested idea that a soft object serves some functions of a mother

• reared 16 rhesus baby monkeys with two wire model mothers

• in one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother, in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth covered moth

findings

• baby monkeys cuddled the cloth covered mother in preference to the plain wire mother

• sought comfort from cloth one when frightened (eg by a noisy mechanical teddy bear) regardless of which mother dispensed milk

• showing that contact comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour

maternally deprived monkeys as adults

• followed the maternal deprived monkeys into adulthood to see if this maternal deprivation had a permanent effect

• found severe consequences - the monkeys with plain wire mothers were most dysfunctional

• however, even those with cloth mover did not develop normal social behaviour

• monkeys were more aggressive, less sociable, unskilled at mating, neglected their young and attacked their children, even killing them

critical period for normal development

90 days - after, attachment was impossible and damage was done by early deprivation became irreversible

evaluation

1. real world value

2. generalisability

3. ethics

real world value

• his research has had practical applications

• helped social workers and psychologists understand the effects of maternal deprivation and develop interventions to prevent harm. also influenced attachment focused care for animals in zoos and breeding programmes

• shows findings are not just theoretical but have real world benefits, demonstrating the practical importance of studying attachment in both animals and humansge

generalisability

• findings from monkeys may not fully apply to humans

• rhesus monkeys are more similar to humans than birds, but human brain function and behaviour and still more complex

• means while findings provide insights, they may not fully explain human attachment, suggesting caution is needed in directly applying findings from animal research to human psychology

ethics

• research caused severe psychological and emotional harm to the monkeys

• they were subjected to extreme emotional distress, including isolation and maternal depirvation leading to long term social and psychological damage. some displayed abnormal behaviours, such as aggression and difficulty forming social bonds

• suffering inflicted raises major ethical concerns as they were unable to consent and the harm was significant and lasting

• challenged whether the knowledge aquired justifies the ethical costs, sparking debate about the treatment of animals in psychological research