PSY 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Maternal Sensitivity, Prolactin, Blood Plasma
Document Summary
Can be considered any behavior that is directed towards the survival of fertilized eggs or offspring. The newborn"s developmental status is an important factor which drives the form and quality of parental care in a species. Maternal care is significantly more common than paternal care. The vast majority of work has been performed on rats on the hormonal correlates of mammalian parental action. Rats bear altral young, and mothers perform a cluster of stereotyped maternal behaviors including nest construction, crouching over the pups to allow for feeding, heating, pup retrieval, and increased intruder-oriented aggression. If you expose pups to non-pregnant female rats (or males), their most common reaction is to huddle a long way away. A new mother will behave maternally as soon as her offspring comes not in a week. Hormones mediate the initiation of maternal activity in rats.
