Animal Studies

• Imprinting-Lorenz’s experiment –he split half the clutch of geese to hatch artificially. those hatched artificially saw Lorenz as the first moving object. They imprinted on Lorenz. he also found the critical period-Imprinting must occur within a few hours after birth (or does not happen). He also found that birds show courtship behaviour towards whatever species they imprint on.
• one limitation of Lorenz's research is that it lacks generalisability as babies and geese are different, and therefore are too complex
• Harlow's Monkeys- Infant monkeys were separated from mothers, placed in cage with cloth and wire monkeys. preferred a cloth-covered mother to a wire one regardless of which provided milk. They were also more wiling to explore a strange room if the cloth mother was there. 23/24 hours was spent on cloth monkeys
• Critical period-Monkeys had around 90 days to attach to a mother figure or they could not form an attachment, which meant they were dysfunctional as adulsts
• One strength of Harlow's research is it has real life applications. Developmental psychologists have realised the importance of bonding between parents and children.
• One limitation of Harlow's research is it cannot be generalised.
• Another limitation of Harlow's research is that it was highly unethical. However his findings were important