The term imprint has a colloquial sense, but also a scientific one and is part of human psychology and the science that studies animal behavior, ethology.
The idea of imprinting in everyday language
Each person has their own style and their way of doing things. Thus, when someone writes, dances or paints, they leave their personal stamp, that is, their imprint. In this way, the imprint would be like the distinctive mark that someone gives to an activity, usually of a creative type.
On the other hand, the idea of imprint is used as a synonym for trace or influence. When walking through a city with a lot of history we can observe the imprint of other civilizations and cultures in its buildings, in the words that are used, in the traditions or in any aspect of reality. If we walk through the streets of a Latin American capital, it is very likely that the imprint of the Spanish and indigenous cultures can be appreciated.
The imprint on animal behavior
The one who investigated the concept of imprinting was the Austrian scientist Konrad Lorenz. By studying the world of animals, he observed their behavior at the time of the birth of the young. In his research he was able to appreciate that in the case that the offspring were orphans and only saw a human, they acted as if the human were their mother. This happened because during an initial period the calf showed a strong bond with its new mother and this attachment conditioned its subsequent behavior.
This phenomenon was described as the animal imprint. For Lorenz, imprinting becomes a machine learning process that determines the behavior of animals. In this way, by instilling an imprint in a newborn animal, its sexual behavior as an adult will be very different from what it would have in natural circumstances.
The imprint on human behavior
The imprint is the attachment behavior of animals and its consequences. However, some psychologists consider that this phenomenon can be extrapolated to the human being. In fact, babies have a very strong emotional attachment to their mothers and this bond creates an imprint on their personality. From the point of view of psychology, studies have been carried out with orphaned children who have lived their first years in an institution and it has been observed how the absence of initial and direct emotional ties has conditioned their lives. The reality of orphaned children has made it possible to understand the concept of imprinting as an essential element in the developmental development of childhood.
Photos: iStock - petrunjela / nicoletaionescu
