Animal studies

• Lorenz's Research


  1935
• Lorenz's Research


  1. Randomly divided clutch of gosling eggs into 2 groups

  2. One group hatched with mother

  3. Other group hatched in incubator
• Imprinting


  An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with mother during a specific time, the first few hours after birth
• Those placed in an incubator did not recognise mother, but followed Lorenz
• Imprinting


  • Restricted to critical period (first 2 days of seeing moving object)
  • Not all animals will imprint on humans
• Imprinting


  The process is irreversible and long lasting, could affect mating preferences whereby they will chose a mate with the same object they imprinted
• Harlow's Research (The Origins of Love)


  1959
• Harlow's Research


  • Created two wire mothers with a different head, one wrapped in cloth, the other was bare but held food
  • 8 infant monkeys were examined, 165 days
  • Observations were made on the time spent with each of the two mothers
  • Harlow also recorded long terms effects including sociability and mating behaviour
• Those who needed food spent as little time as possible on wire mother
• Attachment


  Infants do not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them, but to the person offering contact comfort
• All socially abnormal, and did not show normal mating behaviour
• If spent time within 3 months with peers could recover
• If spent time with peers for 6 months, unable to recover