Animal studies of attachment

• Lorenz (1952)

  Imprinting - gosling eggs
• Lorenz procedure

  Divided clutch of gosling eggs

  Half saw Lorenz when born

  Half saw mother goose
• Findings

  Incubated clutch imprinted on Lorenz

  Eggs with mother goose imprinted on mother goose
• Lorenz critical period

  Depending on the species can be as short as a few hours after hatching

  If imprinting does not occur in this time then it will not ever
• Lorenz sexual imprinting

  Animals imprinted on humans show sexual behaviour towards humans later

  Same goes for any species
• Harlow (1958)

  Importance of comfort for attachment
• Harlow procedure

  16 baby monkeys

  2 fake monkey mothers - wire with milk and cloth

  Tested in different conditions to see who they’d gravitate to
• Harlow findings

  Baby monkeys favoured cloth mother in situations of fear

  Shows comfort is more important than food for forming attachment
• Harlow monkeys effects later in life

  Some of the maternally deprived monkeys became bad mothers and some didn’t mate at all