animal studies - lorenz

• Lorenz demonstrated the concept of imprinting - this is where animals will attach to the first moving object or person they see directly after birth. Lorenz showed that imprinting occurred in a clutch of goose eggs, where half attached to and followed Lorenz after seeing him as the first moving person after birth. Imprinting/ the formation of an attachment must occur within the critical period of attachment development, which is usually the first 30 months of life, after which an attachment is not possible and the consequences of a failure to form an attachment are irreversible
• Sexual imprinting is also a similar idea, where animals will attach to and display sexual behaviours towards the first moving object or animal they see directly after birth. Lorenz reported of a case of a peacock who was born surrounded by turtles, and so only desired to mate with turtles in later life
• weakness -

  There are significant issues associated with trying to generalise findings from Lorenz’s studies. For example, mammalian attachment systems are different to that of birds, because mammals can potentially form attachments at any time during their lives and at a greater emotional intensity. Therefore, this suggests that such findings have low ecological validity because they cannot be generalised beyond the research setting within which they were found.
• weakness -

  Sexual imprinting is not as permanent as Lorenz theorised. For example, Guiton et al demonstrated that chickens who’d imprinted on washing up gloves eventually learned to prefer to mate with other chickens, despite this initial imprinting. This means that learning and experience are more important factors in attachment formation than imprinting.