Lorenz's research

Imprinting

- Lorenz (1952) first observed the phenomenon of this when he was a child and a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling that followed him around

Procedure

- As an adult Lorenz set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs. Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment. The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz

Findings

- The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group, hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her. When the two groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz. This is called imprinting- whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see

Sexual imprinting

- Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences. He observed that birds that imprinted on a human would often display courtship behaviour towards humans. Lorenz (1952) described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw were giant tortoises. As an adult, this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises. Lorenz concluded that this meant the peacock had undergone this

Evaluation- Strengths

▪P A strength of Lorenz's study is that its findings have been highly influential within the field of developmental psychology
▪E For example, the fact that imprinting is seen to be irreversible (as suggested in Lorenz's study) suggests that attachment formation is under biological control and that attachment formation happens within a specific time frame
▪L This is a strength because it lead developmental psychologists (such as Bowlby) to develop well recognised theories of attachment suggesting the attachment formation takes place during a critical period and is a biological process. Such theories have been highly influential in the way child care is administered today

Evaluation- Weaknesses

- We are unable to generalise the findings and conclusions from birds to humans. The mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds. For example, mammal attachment is a two-way process, so it is not just the young who become attached to their mothers but also the mammalian mothers show an emotional attachment to their young

- This means that it is probably not appropriate to generalise Lorenz's ideas to humans

Findings: Critical period

- Lorenz identified this in which imprinting needs to take place. Depending on the species this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching (or birth). If imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure