LORENZ AND HARLOW EVALUATION

strength

For example, Guiton (1966) showed that young chicks, exposed to yellow rubber gloves for feeding them during the first two weeks of life, became imprinted on the gloves

Adult males later tried to mate with the gloves.


There is empirical support for imprinting.

is important as it reliably validates Lorenz’s view that young birds are not born with a predisposition to imprint on a specific type of object but probably on any moving thing that is present during the critical period.

strength

his findings have had profound implications for the social care system as social workers now have insight into the risk factors of early child neglect and abuse and so will intervene in situations in an attempt to prevent negative life-threatening effects on social development.

This matters because we now have an understanding that it is vital that all of a young animal’s needs are catered for; taking care of a young animal’s physical needs alone is not sufficient for healthy early development.

In addition to the above, a strength of Harlow’s research is that it has had important application in real life situations.

weakness

unlikely that observations of geese following a researcher or rhesus monkeys clinging to cloth-covered wire models reflects the emotional connections and interaction that characterise human attachments.

however, A number of studies have indeed found that the observations of animal attachment behaviour are mirrored in humans e.g. Harlow’s research is supported by Schaffer & Emerson’s in that infants were not most attached to the person who feeds them.

disagreement whether studies on bird or monkeys can be generalised and to be applied to complex behaviour

this shows animals studies can be useful, but human research is need to validate findings

weakness

huge amounts of physical and psycological harm for monkeys, never properly recovered.

experiment can be justified in terms of the significant effect it has had on our understanding of the processes of attachment, and the information gained from this study has been used to offer better care for human infants

Harlow has faced severe criticism surrounding the ethical nature of his research which raised huge ‘issues’.

it could be argued that the benefits outweighed the costs to the animals involved in the study.