Cards (4)

  • a strength of the critical period is shown through an experiment done by Lorenz with geese. He divided a group of geese from birth and separated one group from the mother and kept them in an incubator and he made sure he was the first thing that they saw when they hatched. He found that those from the incubator followed him around which shows that the geese made an attachment with him as they were the first thing that they saw
  • a weakness of lorenz's study is that it is based on animals therefore it cannot be generalised to humans because they are different to humans. this therefore reduced the validity of his experiment and cannot be seen as reliable
  • a weakness is that the concepts of monotropy lacks validity. the relationship with the primary attachment figure may simply be stronger than the other attachments rather than different in quality. other family members may develop attachments with the baby that have the same qualities such as comfort and a secure base to explore. This means that bowlbys may have been wrong to suggest there is a unique quality to a childs primary attachment
  • a strength of the internal working model is shown through an experiment done by Hazan and Shaver. they did a questionairre called the love quiz that examined current attachment experiences and history. they found that there was a positive correlation between attachment types and later love experiences. This supports bowlbys idea of the internal working model as it suggests that out early childhood experiences effect our later adult relationships