Animal studies of attachment

Lorenz - imprinting:

Half goose eggs he raised, other half the mother raised. His geese followed him, not their mother, suggesting imprinting.

He identified a critical period which can be as brief as a few hours, imprinting must take place then or attachment will never form.

Lorenz - sexual imprinting

A peacock who imprinted on a tortoise displayed courting behaviours to other tortoises

Harlow - contact comfort:

16 monkeys and two wire mothers, one plain, one cloth. Found no matter which dispensed milk, the monkeys sought comfort in the cloth one. Comfort over food.

He concluded the critical period was 90 days for monkeys. If an attachment wasn’t formed by then, it would become impossible.

Harlow - maternal deprivation:

Monkeys under both conditions were deprived, they were more anti-social, bred less, and if they became mothers they would neglect them and hurt them.

Not generalisable

Animal findings cannot be generalised to humans.

Ethical issues

Harlow damaged the monkeys behaviour in his research. He made them distressed in a cage. this discredits the research as it was unethical to the animals, making it less credible

Usefulness

Harlows research has been helpful in understanding mother infant attachment. We can see that comfort from mother to babies more important than food (against cupboard love). Showed the effects of early levels attachment on later relationships