Imprinting is a psychological concept devised by ethologist, Konrad Lorenz, which is akin to a "dormant instinct" that is waiting to be "turned on" by the right circumstances and conditions. If we were computers, then imprinting would be like firmware that is preinstalled on the computer and designed to be activated only when we are ready.

Previously only studied in early child development in the interactions between mother and child, today, imprinting is far more studied in adult romantic relationships too, and accounts for the particular, individualized effects that relating to our specific parents gave us, which influence our personal choices in a mate.

For the purposes of Romantic Dynamics, imprinting in adult romance comes in four major types: ttachment, which is

1. Attachment, which is the connection found in a baby toward its opposite sex parent (and later found in a romantic partner.)
2. Bonding, which is what either parent feels back, for the baby, and what mature partners feel in each other, as friendship.
3. Identification, which is the connection found in a child toward its same sex parent, and causes the internalization of both virtues and vices of that parent with similar gender instincts.
4. Initiation into adulthood, which is taking the parental interactions of youth, into the adult world to use when we are alone, not with our parents, and needing to harvest the lessons of adulthood from them, through living through the events of life.

These four come online at different times of life, in different circumstances, when the right conditions exist - making them all "imprinting phenomenae."