animal studies

• a limitation of Harlow and Loren’s studies are that they have low generalisability as they compare animals to humans
• • Lorenz separated a clutch of goose eggs, half being kept with the mother and half being incubated - the eggs that saw the goose as their first moving object imprinted/attached to her, whereas the eggs incubated with lorenz attached to lorenz as he was the first moving object they saw
• • Lorenz suggested Imprinting must occur within the critical period, around the first 30 months of life, after this window attachments will not be properly formed (bowlbys theory of attachment is based off this)
• • Sexual imprinting is a similar idea - animals will show sexual behaviours towards the first type of moving object they see - case study where a peacock who was born surrounded by turtles only wanted to mate with turtles.
• • Limitation: sexual imprinting might not be as permanent as lorenz believed - other research suggests chickens who had imprinted on washing up gloves eventually learnt to mate with other chickens, despite imprinting- suggests learning and experience are more important factors in attachment formation than imprinting. 
• Harlow's study demonstrates the importance of contact comfort in attachments
• • Harlow used young rhesus monkeys in his study, the monkeys were presented with 2 wire surrogate mothers- one providing comfort (cloth covered) and one providing food. When the monkeys were scared they would always seek comfort from the cloth mother - only going to the wire mother when they needed food 
  • This suggests that contact comfort is more important that food in the development of attachments 
• Harlows research supports the idea of a critical period -

  • Harlow also found that the monkeys had developmental issues, they were less skilled at mating and tended to be socially reclusive - shows the importance of an attachment being formed in the critical period 
• Harlows research breaches ethical guidelines, causing psychological harm to the monkeys and causing them difficulties later in life. in cases like this a cost-benefit analysis should be conducted to asses if ethical costs are smaller or larger than the benefits of improving our understanding of attachment