Animal studies - Lorenz

• Bowlby formed his monotropy theory of attachments and maternal deprivation based off the idea that there was biological continuity between was was true of humans and what was therefore true of animals
• • lorenz aimed to investigate attachment and imprinting and to do so used geese
• lorenz procedure

  • placed half of a batch of goose eggs under the goose mother
  • placed the other half in an incubator - making sure he was the first object they saw
  • when they hatched, Lorenz imitated the geese mothers quacking sounds
  • lorenzes group followed him, whilst the geese mother group followed the geese mother
  • to ensure imprinting had occured - Lorenz mixed all the chicks back up
  • when released - they separated into two groups going to either their mother or Lorenz, depending on whom was the first thing they saw
• lorenz’s findings shows the significance of a critical period:

  • as the chicks followed the first thing they saw
  • in the critical 13-16 hours after they hatched
• imprinting:

  • where the animals form an attachment to the first moving object they see during the critical period
• Lorenz claimed that if no attachment was formed in the first 32 hours, then it is unlikely one would form at all
• overall, lorenzes findings suggest that:

  • attachment is innate and biologically préprogrammed, this is clear as no feeding was involved, therefore the need to imprint already existed and was not learnt
• the consequences of imprinting include:

  • survival advantage in the wild - animals born In the wild must stay close to their mothers for protection and food, therefore imprinting is vital for their survival
• Lorenz claimed that imprinting was irreversible, and once an animal had imprinted it could not imprint on anything else
• lorenz: -findings cannot be generalised to human behaviour

  • the attachment process in mammals is known to be different to brirds
  • as mammalian mothers show more emotional attachments and can form them at anytime
  • this suggests that lorenz’s findings about a critical period in which an attachment must form is not applicable to humans as we may not attach in the same way
• lorenz : —GUITON provided contradictory evidence to the idea that attachment is irreversiblé

  • lorenz suggested that attachment was irreversible, and could later affect mating behaviour
  • however guiton found that chickens who imprinted on yellow gloves, did initially try and mate with them, as expected
  • however, with age and experience the chickens learnt to prefer other chicken and no longer seemed attached to the glove
  • suggests that imprinting is reversible and its effect on mating behaviour can be un-leant
  • suggesting the idea of imprinting is not as important as lorenz suggested
• Lorenz: +real world application in farming

  • the idea of imprinting is used in sheep farming
  • it helps mothers who have lost their lambs, and orphaned lambs
  • if a lamb who’s mother died in birth, is presented to a mother who also lost her lamb (wrapped in the skin of her dead lamb)
  • then imprinting can occur through smell
  • meaning an attachment is formed and the mother will care for and feed the lamb, bringing it up as her own and preventing the production of sheep from stopping