AO3 - Lorenz

• Lorenz supports Bowlby's Monotropic Theory, as the attachment process of imprinting is an innate process which has a critical period.
• Animal studies have been conducted to study attachment due to ethical issues in studying human attachment.
• Imprinting is the process by which some birds instinctively bond with the first moving object they see within hours of hatching.
• Imprinting occurs within a critical period, and if an offspring is not exposed to a moving object during this time, they will fail to form an attachment.
• Animals imprint a mental image of the first moving object they see after birth, and attachment is an instinctive process.
• Geese that imprinted on Lorenz followed him throughout their early life and into adulthood.
• Lorenz's research with goslings influenced John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth in their studies on human attachments.
• Hess further developed Lorenz's theory of imprinting by showing the timing and strength of the response in goslings.
• Criticisms of Lorenz's research include the limited opportunity for goslings to choose their imprinted parent and the potential reversibility of imprinting with further socialisation.
• Guiton (1966) studied leghorn chicks, and offers support for Lorenz's theory of imprinting.
• Guiton (1966) showed that imprinting can be reversed through socialisation with their own species.
• Animal studies of attachment may not be directly generalisable to humans due to differences in conscious decision-making and emotional bonding. Further research is needed.
• Imprinting is the instinctive drive of an animal to form an attachment with the first moving thing it sees soon after birth.
• One piece of research that supports the idea of imprinting in animals is the studies conducted by Lorenz (1930s onwards) on birds.
• There are limitations of using animal studies to understand human attachment include the differences in brain development, cognitive abilities, and social complexity between humans and non-human animals.
• Regolin & Vallortigara (1995) support the idea of imprinting and suggest animals are born with an instinct to attach.
• Natural experiments like Lorenz (1952) have high ecological validity.