Outline And Evaluate Animal Studies As An Explanation For Attachment
Essay Summary Plan
> Para One Ideas and Conclusion
> Para Two Ideas and Conclusion
> Para Three Ideas and Conclusion
> 3-5 Limitations (In Red) and Positives (In Green) of the theory with supporting evidence an...
Outline And Evaluate Animal Studies As An Explanation For Attachment
Para 1:
Aim: Lorenz aimed to investigate the mechanisms of imprinting.
Imprinting is irreversible and long lasting.
It takes place in a critical period between 4 and 25 hours after hatching (goslings)
It has an effect on later sexual behaviour (eg. sexual imprinting - animals (especially birds)
will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they were imprinted
Lorenz took a group of goose eggs, split it into 2 batches
• Half hatched by him in an incubator
• Half hatched by the mother
Lorenz made sure that he was the first moving object that they encountered.
He then marked all the goslings so he could tell the difference between the ones he hatched at
the ones naturally hatched and placed them in an upturned box. When the box was lifted, the
naturally attached goslings followed their mother and the incubator hatched goslings went to
Lorenz.
Lorenz called this imprinting, a form of attachment where close contact is maintained with
the first moving object encountered
THERE IS LOTS OF SUPPORTING EVIDENCE DEMONSTRATING IMPRINTING
• Guiton found that chickens imprinted with rubber gloves when they were the first thing
that they saw after hatching
CONCLUSION: THIS SHOWS THAT ANIMALS ARE BORN WITH A
PREDISPOSITION TO IMPRINT ONTO THE FIRST MOVING OBJECT DURING A
CRITICAL PERIOD
THERE ARE ISSUES WITH GENERALISATION FROM ANIMALS TO HUMANS
• Mammal and bird attachment systems are different - eg. Mammals show more emotional
attachment than birds
CONCLUSION: THIS MEANS THE FINDINGS THAT BIRDS CAN IMPRINT ON ANY
MOVING OBJECT AND ONLY IN A CRITICAL PERIOD MAY NOT BE TRUE OF
HUMANS
SOME OF LORENZ’S OBSERVATIONS HAVE BEEN QUESTIONED
• Guiton found that he could reverse imprinting in chickens who tried to mate with rubber
gloves in adulthood so they engaged in normal sexual behaviour
CONCLUSION: THIS MEANS THAT IMPRINTATION MAY NOT BE AS
PERMANENT AS SUGGESTED
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