, Topic of Attachment
Subject : Psychology | Date: 27.05.2026
Imprinting
● being attached to the first moving object an animal sees when being born
Critical period
● the time period in which the newborn has to get attached with their primary care giver
Sexual imprinting
● eg: birds show courtship behaviour towards whatever species they imprint on
Harlow’s experiment
● separated baby monkey from their mothers
● gave them a wire and cloth monkey, wired dispensed food
Findings
● baby monkey cuddled the cloth monkey and sought comfort when frightened
-shows that comfort is more important to monkeys than food when it came to
attachment behaviour
Strengths Limits
benefitted the ethical issues
world
impacted
cupboard monkeys
love no longer offspring
a thing (it's
about comfort comparing
not food) animals to