Lorenz

• Lorenz's Imprinting Theory suggests that attachment is innate and genetically programmed
• Guiton's study with chicks and yellow rubber gloves supported Lorenz's findings on imprinting
• Lorenz (1952) first observed the phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child and a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling which followed him around.
• 𝙇𝙊𝙍𝙀𝙉𝙕'𝙎 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝘾𝙀𝘿𝙐𝙍𝙀:

  Lorenz set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs. Half of the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in a natural environment. The other half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
• 𝙇𝙊𝙍𝙀𝙉𝙕'𝙎 𝙁𝙄𝙉𝘿𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙎:

  The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere, whereas the control group, hatched in the presence of the mother, followed her. When the two groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group continued to follow Lorenz.

  This is called imprinting - whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see. The critical period is a few hours after birth. If imprinting does not occur in that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.
• Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences. He observed that birds who imprinted on humans would later display courtship behaviour towards humans.

  In a case study, Lorenz (1952) described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises, as these are what it imprinted on. Lorenz concluded this meant the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.
• 𝙀𝙑𝘼𝙇𝙐𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 𝙊𝙁 𝙇𝙊𝙍𝙀𝙉𝙕:

  • research support
  • generalisability to humans
  • applications to understanding human behaviour
• (𝗟)

  𝟭. 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧:

  One strength of Lorenz's research is the existence of support for the concept of imprinting.

  Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) exposed chicks to simple moving shape combinations, such as a triangle with a rectangle in front. A range of shape combinations were then moved in front of them, and they followed the original most closely.

  This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development, as predicted by Lorenz.
• (𝗟)

  𝟮. 𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗔𝗕𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗬 𝗧𝗢 𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗦:

  One limitation of Lorenz's studies is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans.

  The mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds. For example, in mammals attachment is a two-way process, so it is not just the young who become attached to their mothers but the mammalian mothers also become emotionally attached to their young.

  This means that it is probably not appropriate to generalise Lorenz's findings to humans.
• (𝗟)

  𝟯. 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗢 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗛𝗨𝗠𝗔𝗡 𝗕𝗘𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗥:

  Although human attachment is very different from that in birds, there have been attempts to use the idea that some kind of 'imprinting' explains human behaviour.

  For example, Seebach (2005) suggested that computer users exhibit 'baby duck syndrome' - which is the attachment formed to their first computer operating system, leading them to reject others.
• On one hand humans do not simply form their first true attachments to the first moving objects they see. This means that imprinting as observed by Lorenz in birds may be of limited value to understanding the development of human attachments.

  However, it may be true that humans acquire some behaviour by means of 'imprinting'. This explains for example why so many people prefer the first computer system they use and struggle to adapt to others.

  It can therefore be argued that Lorenz's research on imprinting is of value in understanding some human attachment-related behaviours.
• Define imprinting.

  When a young animal eventually comes to recognise another animal, person or thing as a parent.