Lorenz

• Lorenz argues that imprinting behaviours are evolutionary. He investigates imprinting in baby geese.
• Imprinting is a form of attachment where the offspring follows the first moving object.
• Lorenz split the geese eggs into 2 batches. The natural batch hatched with their mother and the incubator ones hatched with Lorenz.
• Lorenz recorded who the groups followed after birth and noted the set times when imprinting can occur.
• Results

  • geese followed mother if hatched around mother and Lorenz if around Lorenz
  • he marked them and placed them all together
  • when Lorenz and their mother were present, they separated themselves and followed the object they had imprinted on
• Depending on species, the set time for imprinting can be as small as a few hours... Lorenz identified this as the critical period. If attachment does not occur here, the geese do not attach themselves to a mother figure, which supports the idea of a critical period as imprinting occurs within a set period of time.
• A03

  • These findings support Bowlby's continuity hypothesis. Goslings exhibited sexual advances to humans when adult birds which shows the importance of behaviour upon future relationships.
  • Later research showed that chickens who had imprinted on yellow washing up gloves tried to mate with them as adults but they later learned to mate with their own species.
• A03

  • The research was done on animals so it is debatable how far the findings can be generalised to humans. The attachment behaviour of geese may not be the asme as humans.
  • Geese are precocial whcich means they feed and look after themselves shortly after birth whereas humans are altricial.
  • Attachment in humans is a two way process