ABSTRACT
There are few concepts in the literature of developmental psychology that have commanded as much attention as the idea that the formation of primary social attachments must take place during a brief critical period if socialization is to proceed normally. The notion that there might be a critical period for social attachments was first brought to the attention of the scientific community and the general public when Konrad Lorenz described the process by which gray lag goslings come to follow and become socially bonded to whatever moving object they first encounter (Lorenz, 1935). Lorenz observed that if exposed to a human being during the first few hours after hatching, the goslings became socially attached to the human in much the same fashion as they would ordinarily become socially attached to their natural mother, and he illustrated the strength of these attachments with a now classic photograph of a half dozen or so goslings following him in a line.
