Filial and Sexual Imprinting

Filial and Sexual Imprinting

Affectionate bonds are formed as a result of interactions with the attachment figure, that is, between child and parent. Emotional life is seen as dependent on the formation, maintenance, disruption or renewal of attachment relationships.

Imprinting of various degrees of intensity is now known to occur in many birds, such as the zebra finch. The zebra finch raised with Bengalese finches preferred mating with the Bengalese finch. Even after forceful mating with the zebra finch, these birds would still go back and attempt to mate with the Bengalese finches. To which the Bengalese generally rejected them. This implies a critical period for sexual imprinting. The birds sought out mates, which looked like their parents. The longer the exposure to the Bengalese finch, the harder it became to get these zebra finches to mate with their own kind, in some cases impossible.

Filial imprinting is a phenomenon whereby the young quickly learn to recognize their parents thereby following them everywhere, keeping proximity to them and avoiding contact with any other but close family. Imprinting takes place during a critical period immediately following birth. In 1950, Harry Harlow conducted experiments with rhesus monkeys. He set monkeys up with "mothers" made of cloth, wire frame mothers, and some had no mothers at all. In the experiments, the monkeys obviously showed a strong preference for the wire monkeys and in all cases, they clung to whatever mother they had. Post maturation, the monkeys would pull their hair, rock back and forth, and were not able to mate. Monkeys have a similar physiology to humans and would more than likely show similar outcomes. People raised without their mother have tendency to be more violent. Without a model of maternal behavior, children will not grow up with natural maternal "instincts." Babies and mothers practice synchrony, by mimicking one another. Parents more often abuse their adopted children than natural birth children. This is likely because the parents do not have the hormones released at birth-which form loving attachments.

Sexual Imprinting occurs later than filial imprinting. The people you are exposed to at a young age will build models for your future mates. However, seeing someone throughout childhood generally makes you sexually not attracted to him or her. You still may look for qualities, which they possess. By age 20 homo sapiens have a mental image of what their proper mate should be like.