Lorenz

Question 1

Strength: practical applications

Answer 1

Research into the effects of imprinting can be praised for PA, principles of research that Goslings had to imprint within 12-17 hours or they would not imprint at all,and goslings who imprint on humans later show sexual behaviour towards humans, shows importance of critical period for future relationships, psychologists can use this information to promote importance of early interactions between parent and infant, important part of applied psychology

Question 2

Weakness: animal bias

Answer 2

Conducted on Goslings, human attachment behaviour may be more complex than animal as humans emotions are more sophisticated towards offspring, eg attachment in humans is a two way process, issue with extrapolating findings of Lorenz’s research, limits extent to which research can be used

Question 3

Weakness: researcher bias

Answer 3

Lorenz recorded his own observations, may have chosen to only include findings that would support his theory of imprinting, and ignore findings such as goslings who didn’t imprint on him, lowers internal validity