AO3 - Lorenz

• Lorenz's research can be praised for practical applications. This is because the principles of the research that goslings imprint within 12-17 hours or they may never imprint and the fact that goslings that imprinted on humans later show sexual behaviours towards humans shows the importance of the critical period for future relationships. Psychologists can use this information to promote the importance of early interactions to hopefully reduce issues later in life, therefore Lorenz's research is an important part of applied psychology for the understanding of both animal and human attachments.
• Lorenz's research can be criticised for animal bias as it was conducted on goslings to investigate attachment. This is a potential problem as human attachment behaviour may be more complex than animal attachment behaviour as human emotions are more sophisticated towards their infants than birds. For example, human attachment is a two way process so it is not just the young who become attached to their mothers but also the mothers emotionally to infants. This makes it difficult to extrapolate the findings to humans, limiting the extent Lorenz's research can be used to explain human attachments.
• Moreover, Lorenz's research may be criticised for researcher bias. Lorenz recorded his own observations of the birds so he may have chosen to only include findings that would support his theory of imprinting and ignore findings such as goslings who did not imprint on him. Therefore lowering the internal validity of the research as it may not be truly measuring the effects of imprinting on attachment.