Animal studies

• Certain animals are known to attach to their mother strongly, the infant animal will then continue to follow their mother. Lorenz termed this process imprinting.
• LORENZ PROCEDURE

  Greylag goose eggs were randomly divided; half were taken to be hatched by Lorenz using an incubator and the other half hatched naturally by the biological mother.
• Lorenz findings


  • Goslings who saw Lorenz first imprinted on him and followed him rather than the mother goose
  • Goslings that had hatched in a natural environment imprinted on the mother goose and followed her
• Lorenz experiment


  1. Placed all the goslings in a box

  2. Released the goslings

  3. Found that those who imprinted on him still continued to follow him
• Imprinting period


  • Goslings had a critical period of around 32 hours
  • If a gosling did not see a large moving object to imprint on in these first few hours, it lost the ability to imprint as a whole
• Harlow tested the cupboard love theory - the idea that babies form an attachment with their mothers because they feed them.
• HARLOW PROCEDURE

  Infant monkeys were removed from their biological mothers and placed in cages with surrogate mothers. One surrogate mother was made of wire and provided milk but no comfort, the other mother provided comfort as it was covered with cloth but did not provide food.
• Infant monkeys

  • Spent most of their time with the cloth mother who provided comfort
  • Only visited the other surrogate mother when they needed to be fed, but would quickly return to the cloth mother
• Harlow frightened the monkeys with a mechanical monkey


  Infant monkeys returned to the cloth mother
• Monkeys without access to a cloth mother

  • Showed signs of stress-related illness
• Harlow found that the monkeys suffered from maternal deprivation
• Maternal deprivation caused permanent psychological damage to the monkeys in adulthood
• Monkeys suffered from difficulty in mating behaviour and raising their offspring
• EVAL - DRAWBACK

  research done on animals is softened and criticised for its unethical nature. Public knowledge of these studies has harmed psychology's reputation. However, when looking at a cost-benefit analysis, these studies have had extreme benefits to millions of human infants.
• Cupboard love theory

  Monkeys have a biological need for physical contact and crave comfort rather than food
• EVAL - DRAWBACK

  It's generally hard to generalise animal behaviour to human psychology. Humans and animals have very different biology. experiencing various social and cultural settings that form their behaviour. Low external validity.
• EVAL - ADVANTAGE

  Bowlby also suggested that humans have a critical period which is between 6 and 30 months. This influenced practical applications such as adoption practices.suggesting that if an attachment is not formed there will be detrimental consequences to the psychological social and emotional well-being of the person. However, research into orphans who were maternally deprived in early life suggests that, unlike geese, this period for humans is sensitive and can be reversed with the correct care.
• There are practical applications of Harlow and Lorenz’s work. Lorenz’s work on imprinting paired with Bowlbys later found theories have influenced healthcare professionals to prioritise skin-to-skin contact with an infant and their mother in the first few hours of birth. Additionally, social services actively investigate and prioritise cases of infant neglect.
• Harlow's findings have been supported by later research done by Bowlby and his monotropy theory. suggesting that infants crave comfort and attachment with their mothers due to innate biology instead of due to an association with food. Additionally, Bowlby claims that maternal deprivation can lead humans to grow with poor socialisation similar to how the monkeys without a mother behaved. (continuity hypothesis)