Animal studies

• lorenzs research was on imprinting using goslings. Half of the eggs were still with the mother acting as a control group while the other half were kept in an incubator with lorenz being the first moving thing they saw. Then when they hatched the second group followed lorenz around having no interest in the mother as they imprinted on lorenz. He identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place.
• Harlows research on contact comfort observed 16 rhesus monkeys that were kept in cages with two wired surrogate monkeys. One condition the monkey got milk from only the wired while the other condition was from the cloth covered mother. The monkeys sought comfort with the cloth mother when frightened regardless of which surrogate gave food.
• maternal deprivation with the monkeys as adults. The monkeys had poor social and mating skills which made them more aggressive and attacked their children. The critical period was 90 days and when reunited with the mother before that time then the effects can be reversed.
• one strength of lorenzs research is there is evidence from a study supporting the theory of imprinting. Regolin et als chick study is similar because when the chicks hatched they immediately saw the moving shapes and continued to follow it around. This supports that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to attach during a critical period.
• A limitation is that this research cannot be generalised to humans. Us humans are more complicated eg having a two way interaction in order to attach instead of imprinting. This means its not representative enough to use for humans.
• A strength of Harlows research is that there is real life application. Teachers and social workers can apply the findings to help children and understand the importance of attachment figures in a childs development. This brings ecological validity.