Animal Studies of Attachment - Lorenz

Question 1

what was the aim of Lorenz (1935) study

Answer 1

to investigate the mechanisms of imprinting – this is where youngsters follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object they meet.

Question 2

what was the procedure of Lorenz (1935) study

Answer 2

Lorenz split a large clutch of greylag goose eggs into two batches (the IV):
One of which was hatched naturally by the mother
The other hatched in an incubator, with Lorenz making sure he was the first moving object the newly hatched goslings encountered.
Dependent variable: The goslings’ following behaviour was then recorded.

Lorenz then marked all of the goslings, so he could determine whether they were from the naturally hatched batch of eggs or the incubated ones and placed them under an upturned box.
Dependent variable: The box was then removed and following behaviour again recorded.

Question 3

what were the findings of Lorenz (1935) study

Answer 3

Immediately after birth, the naturally hatched baby goslings followed their mother about, while the incubator hatched goslings followed Lorenz around.

Imprinting would only occur within a brief, set time period of between 4 and 25 hours after hatching.

Lorenz subsequently reported on how goslings imprinted onto humans would - as matured adult birds - attempt to mate with humans.

Question 4

what were the conclusions of Lorenz (1935) study

Answer 4

The fact that imprinting is irreversible suggests the ability is under biological control, as learned behaviours can be modified by experience.

The fact that imprinting only occurs within a brief, set time period influenced Bowlby’s idea of a critical period in human babies: a specific time period within which an attachment between infant and carer must form.

The fact that goslings imprinted onto humans exhibit sexual advances to humans when adult birds shows the importance of the behaviour upon future relationships, something that Bowlby incorporated into his continuity hypothesis.

Question 5

Can we generalise these findings to human behaviour?

Answer 5

There are extrapolation issues; the mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds e.g. in mammals attachment is a two-way process – mammalian mothers show an emotional attachment to their young, as well as young becoming attached to their mothers; human infants do not form a discriminate/specific attachment until 6-8 months.
The notion of imprinting has more relevance to precocial species than to altricial ones (including humans).

Question 6

Dispute over the characteristics of imprinting:

Answer 6

Guiton (1996) found that he could reverse the imprinting in chickens who had initially tried to mate with the rubber gloves. He found that after spending time with their own species, they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with other chickens.
This suggests that perhaps imprinting is NOT a biological process, but in fact, learned.
Learning can take place rapidly, with little conscious effort and is also fairly reversible.