Animal studies of attachment

What is imprinting

animal attaches to first moving object it sees

Procedure of Lorenz study

Divided goose eggs into 2 batches

1st batch hatched naturally by mother and 2nd batch hatched in an incubator and first moving object they saw was Lorenz

What was critical period imposed by Lorenz

Period for imprinting to take place which is few hours after birth

Findings of Lorenz

Incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere and other group hatched by mother, followed her.

When 2 groups mixed, incubator group still followed Lorenz and other group still followed mum.

Limitation of Lorenz study- not generalisable to humans

He used animals so cant conclude humans would behave in same way

Attachment in mammals is different than birds, their more emotional to offspring and form attachment outside of critical period.

Caution when drawing wider conclusions of results

Aim of Harlow’s study

To see if attachment wasn’t based on feeding but formed through contact.

Procedure of Harlow

He introduced baby monkeys to 2 wire model mothers.

1 condition dispensed milk from wire model

1 condition dispensed milk by cloth covered model

Findings of Harlow

Baby preferred cloth covered model and sought comfort from it when scared regardless of which one gave milk.

Shows contact comfort is more important than food for attachment

Weakness from Harlow’s study- not generalisable to humans

Although monkeys and humans are similar, still differences.

Human brain and behaviour is more complex

Strength of Harlow- real world application

Knowledge gained from Harlow helps psychologists know lack of bonding, neglect can have negative effect on child’s development- prevent it

Animal care can be improved in zoos- ensure they have proper attachment figures as part of their care