Implicatios of Animal research on Human attachment

• Lorenz

  • provides support for the view that attachments have a biological basis and that they are adaptive (to promote survival)
  • goslings imprint after a matter of minutes due to their increased mobility but human babies are born immobile and therefore there is less call for them to form an attachment (so have a longer critical period)
• Harlow

  • his work with Rhesus monkeys suggests that human babies actually require comfort, love, and interaction in order for normal development to occur
  • despite being fed, the monkeys failed to develop functional social behaviour which suggests that animals have greater needs than food (such as comfort)
  • the fact that isolated monkeys displayed long term dysfunctional behaviour illustrates that early attachment experiences will predict long term social development