Harry Harlow and his monkeys Key Knowledge: Developmental Theorists

Harry Harlow His research in a nutshell……. Explored the attachment of infant monkey’s and their mothers Harlow concluded that Freud’s initial theory that infants formed attachment for oral satisfaction was incorrect Suggested that the monkeys would formed attachment more for contact comfort than food.

Harry Harlow During the 1950’s and 60’s psychologist Harry Harlow conducted experiments investigating the influences on attachments (emotional bonds) of infant rhesus monkeys to their mothers In 1958 he studied the role in feeding-in infant-mother attachment He used 8 infant rhesus monkeys that had been separated from their mother at birth

Harry Harlow The monkey’s were taken from their mothers at birth and kept in cages containing two surrogate mothers. A surrogate is anyone or anything that “substitutes for” or “plays a part” of something else The surrogate mothers were made from wired mesh, and were roughly the same shape and size as the mother monkeys (see figure 4) One mother was covered in terry-towelling cloth the other was left uncovered (see figure 4)

Harry Harlow A feeding bottle was attached to the same area as a breast on a real monkey Four monkeys were placed in the cages with the clothed surrogate mother The other 4 were placed with the uncovered surrogates Each monkey was placed in a separate cage to avoid any comfort from each other If an infants attachment is based on feeding then all monkeys would have preferred and become attached to whichever surrogate

Harry Harlow Results from experiment: Regardless of what nourishment the surrogate provided, the surrogate with the cloth towel was preferred to the wire surrogate None of the monkeys would spend more than two hours over a 24 hour period with the wire surrogate Although the two groups fed from both surrogates and gained weight, all eight monkeys spent more time climbing and clinging to the clothed surrogate By the age of three weeks, all the monkeys were spending up to 15 hours a day with the clothed surrogate

Harry Harlow To examine when the monkeys felt threatened or stressed, Harlow introduced a “stressor” (this is something that places stress on a living organism) Harlow placed a mechanical spider or a bear that beat a drum in the monkey’s caged The monkey’s were terrified and ran to the clothed surrogate, rubbing their bodies against the surrogate for protection In some instances when the monkeys were scared they ran to the wired surrogate, regardless of if they were fed by the wired surrogate. If this was the case it was only for a short time as the monkey would then seek protection from the clothed surrogate

Harry Harlow From these results, Harlow concluded that, “contact comfort,” which was provided by the softness of the cloth covering, was more important than feeding in the formation of creating a bond with a mother He generalised his findings to suggest that contact comfort was also most likely a crucial factor in human infant- parent attachment

Harry Harlow The experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weXEaTKckzY Crash course in psychology: Monkeys & Morality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcQg1EshfIE

Theorist Questions: Harry Harlow Answer the following questions in your workbook: What is the name of the theorist? What is his history/background? What is the developmental theory he researched/developed? What was the major research he conducted and the results he found? What criticisms (if any) are there for their research/theories? Think of some and explain your reasons. (Hint: think of ethical considerations).