Animal Studies in Attachment

• Key animal studies in attachment

  • Lorenz (1952): Imprinting in goslings
  • Harlow (1958): Contact comfort in infant monkeys
• Ethology


  The study of non-human animals in order to learn more about humans
• Zoology


  The study of animals in order to understand the animal itself
• We can use a study of ethology to ask what we can learn about our own species by considering it
• Lorenz (1952) - Imprinting in goslings


  1. Ensured he was the first living adult the experimental group of newborn goslings were exposed to

  2. Experimental group followed Lorenz around even when in the presence of their actual goose mother
• Critical period


  The vital window in which attachment must happen in animate beings
• Harlow (1958) - Contact comfort in infant monkeys

  1. Baby monkeys deprived of food preferred a cloth 'mother' (made of wire mesh with a soft covering) to a milk-dispensing 'mother'

  2. Monkeys subsequently showed signs of maternal deprivation as they had been reared without any real contact with an adult monkey e.g. anti-social, aggressive and had no social behaviours

  3. If the monkeys experienced their first 90 days of life without real adult contact then deprivation-related damage was done