Animal studies essay

Animal studies essay

1. Lorenz - geese eggs. 2 groups. Strong infant-mother bond. Reciprocity needs to be present. Critical period. Sexual mating female geese seek out mate same as object/person/animal

   • Findings: readiness to bond. Imprinting can be done on any moving object . Done so proximity to mother increases so higher chances of survival
     • Guiton (’66) leghorn chicks became imprinted on the yellow gloves This supports Lorenz’s research and confirms that imprinting can occur on any moving object. However, Guiton found that imprinting was not permanent and irreversible - by encouraging chicks to spend more time with their own species they reverted to normal behaviour. Therefore, although imprinting appears to be an innate behaviour subsequent learning can alter this instinct.

2. baby monkeys taken away from mother All were individually kept in cages. Each monkey had access to a wire ‘surrogate mother’ or a ‘surrogate mother’ covered in a cloth. The wire mother had milk bottle attached

   • vast majority of time clinging to the cloth covered mother. Those with the wire mother only briefly clung to her to feed. When frightened they clung to the cloth covered mother for reassurance. This suggest that the basis for attachment is not food but ‘contact comfort’. As a result of their failure to attach to a real mother, as adult monkeys were socially abnormal, either freezing or running away when confronted by other monkeys, they showed abnormal mating behaviour and rejected their own babies. Those raised with the wire mother showed a higher degree of abnormal behaviour.
     • Ethically unacceptable however justifiable in that the monkeys’ suffering was outweighed by the psychological insights gained in helping better understand the attachment process and the long term effects of failing to attach. generalise monkey attachment behaviour to humans is also questionable. Human attachment behaviour is much more complex. However, studies such as Quinton’s (’84) provide support: she found that human mothers who had failed to attach as infants tended to experience problems mothering their own children later on in life.