| Harlow | - separated newborn monkeys and their mothers
- each monkey was presented with either a wire mother a cloth mother
- the wire monkey dispenses milk
- research found that the newborns preferred the cloth mother even if she didn’t produce milk
- displayed the importance of contact comfort |
| Lorenz | - made the conclusion that imprinting needs to take place 13-16 hours after hatching. if imprinting doesn’t occur during this critical period then imprinting does not occur. imprinting is irreversible |
| maternally deprived monkeys | harlow and colleagues also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a real mother into adulthood to see if this is early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect. they didn’t develop social skills, and were more aggressive and bred less often. when they became mothers, some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children |
| harlow’s conclusion on critical period for attachment | for monkeys critical period was 90 days, after this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation was irreversible |
| LIMITATION of Lorenz research | t you can’t generalize findings from birds to humans. the mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds. |
| STRENGTH of Harlow’s research | real world application, it can help social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes. Harlow’s research is not just theoretical but practical |
| LIMITATION of Harlow’s research | is the lack of generalizability to humans. rhesus monkeys are more similar to humans than Harlow’s goslings. However the human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys. |
