animal studies in attachment

• Lorenz (1952) - geese study


  • He had a clutch of goose eggs and took half of them and put them with their mother or in an incubator
  • In the mother he made sure they saw their mother and in the incubator he made sure they saw him
  • The baby goose imprinted on the first thing they see if they are moving
  • He found that as long as the first thing they see is moving they will imprint on them and make sure they follow their mother
  • After a certain point without seeing a thing that moves the gosling will not imprint on anything 13 -16hrs after
  • It helps them understand who they need to mate with, so they need the imprinting to know who they need to mate with
• Lorenz's geese study


  • Independent variable: where they were hatched
  • Dependant variable: who they were attached to
• The strength for Lorenz's finding is that it has been replicated several times which have shown the same results. There wasn't many ethical issues
• However, we cannot use this to support human research as we are so much different from birds so we cannot apply these ideas to humans or other animals. So it has alot of limitations
• Sexual imprinting


  • Lorenz conducted a case study in a peacock raised in the reptile house at the zoo
  • The first thing it saw was a giant tortoise
  • So when it became and adult it displayed courtship behaviour towards them and not to other peacock
• Harlow (1958)

  • Raised 16 monkeys with two wire mothers
  • 1 plain wire and 1 cloth covered wire
  • One condition plain wire gave milk, one cloth mother gave the milk
  • They found that the baby monkeys spent up to 22hr with the cloth covered mother and to go to comfort when they where frightened regardless to who gave the milk
  • This shows contact comfort is more important than food for attachment behaviour
  • Also found a critical period for attachment formation - 90 days
• Harlow's monkey study


  • Independent variable: which mother gave milk
  • Dependant variable: which mother they sought comfort from
• Harlows wasn't very ethical as he took away newborn monkeys from newborn monkeys and their behaviours were definitely changed
• However we gained a greater understanding of what happens if we don't have a primary caregiver and can be applied to humans. It shows that it gives very negative problems. But they aren't actually humans so you have to be cautious when applying this study
• Explanation of attachment: