Summary animal studies psych

Animal Studies

1. Lorenz;
Aim – to examine imprinting
Method –
 Randomly divided goose eggs
 Control group = hatched by mother, experimental group = hatched by Lorenz
 Control group saw biological mother first, experimental group saw Lorenz first
 Both groups were put together in a box and were later released to see whether they would go
to their biological mother or Lorenz
Findings –
 Control group went to their mother, experimental group went back to Lorenz
 This imprinting was long term and irreversible


Conclusion – imprinting occurs on the first moving object which is encountered




2. Harlow;
Aim – examine importance of contact comfort
Method –
 Infant monkeys were placed in a cage with two surrogate mothers
 One mother was made out of wire and could dispense milk
 Other mother was made out of a soft cloth and could not dispense milk
Findings –
 Monkeys preferred the soft surrogate mother
 Only went to wired mother to be fed


Conclusion – attachment is not just based on food. There is an innate drive to seek comfort.


Evaluation;
 Animal studies may be difficult to generalise to humans
 Harlow’s study has real world applications