Animal Studies

Animal Studies

1. Lorenz (1935)

   • Imprinting
     • Lorenz divided the eggs into two half; one half stayed with the mother and the other stayed with Lorenz.
       • Tne geese attached to the first thing they saw; the mother goose, or Lorenz.
     • "An innate readiness to require certain behaviours during a critical/sensitive period of development"
   • Sexual Imprinting
     • Effects who the animal wants to mate with
     • Geese born with the mother, want to mate other geese.
     • Also did a study with a peacock, and the first thing it saw was a tortoise = wanted to mate with tortoises.
   • Not generalizable to humans.
   • Guiton (1966)
     • yellow washing up glove was the first thing chickens saw, still wanted to mate with chickens.

2. Harlow (1958) - Rhesus Monkeys

   • 16 monkeys separated from mothers immediately after birth
     • Placed into cages with surrogate mothers; one cloth (comfort), one wire (food).
     • Spent more time with the cloth mother. Only go to wire mother when hungry.
   • Maternally deprived as adults.
     • Behaviour differences between monkeys grown up with real mothers, and in cages.
       • More timid.
       • Aggressive
       • Difficulty mating
       • Inadequate mothers (killing kids)
       • Could be reversed if they were away for less than 90 days.
   • Contact comfort is more important than food when forming attachments.
   • Shows that food is not a key factor to attachments.
   • Helps social workers determine risk factors in neglect.
   • Ethical issues