Harlow (1959)
Aim: He wanted to show that attachment doesn’t only occur from the feeding bond between
a mother and her child (as predicted by the learning theory).
Procedure:
● Harlow made two “mothers”- one was made out of wire, while the other was wire
wrapped with cloth.
● He then used 8 monkeys to be researched for the experiment.
● 4 monkeys in one group, had a milk bottle on their “mother” wrapped in cloth.
● The other 4 monkeys had the milk bottle on the wired mother.
● All 8 monkeys had both “mothers” present.
● The dependent variables- the amount of time each monkey spent with their “mothers”
were observed.
● There were also observations made of the monkey’s responses when they were
scared.
Findings:
● All monkeys spent more time with the “clothed mother” compared to the “wired
mother”.
● When they did feed on the milk bottle, the “wired mother” had, the time spent
together was short.
● When the monkeys were frightened, they cuddled with the “clothed mother” for
comfort.
● In conclusion- the findings imply that the monkeys don’t form an attachment towards
the mother who feeds them (not the individual), but rather the one that provides
“contact comfort”.
Long lasting effects:
● When Harlow continued to research the monkeys, he found out that the monkeys
became socially and sexually abnormal as they got older.
● There was a critical period* for the effects:
- If the monkeys spent time with the other monkeys they recovered, but this
could have only happened before they were 3 months old.
- Spending time with the “wired mother” for 6 months didn't make the monkeys
successfully recover.
*Critical period: This is when the brain is at a maturation stage and the nervous system is
sensitive to the environmental stimuli an organism is in during their lifetime.
Lorenz (1935)
Aim: He wanted to know about the mechanisms of imprinting (where some animals form an
attachment to the first moving object they see from birth).
Procedure:
● Lorenz took a large clutch of goose eggs and kept them until they were about to
hatch.
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