2.  A developmental psychologist who, in the mid- 1960s, devoted the majority of his career to the nature of infantile love.  Went to Stanford University  Conducted most of his research at the University of Wisconsin  Known for controversial experiments ( one of which included raising monkeys in bare wire cages)

3.  Most psychologists agree that your experiences as an infant with closeness, touching, and attachment to your mother has an important influence on your abilities to love.  However, is the infant’s closeness to his/her mother because she provides food for the infant, or because of something called contact comfort?

4.  Due to ethical reasons, Dr. Harlow decided to use rhesus monkeys in place of human subjects to run his experiment.  He found that infant monkeys had a peculiar attraction to the soft, cloth covering in the cage – contact comfort.

5.  Two surrogate mothers were built: › 1. A smooth wooden body covered in sponge, rubber, and terry cloth. › 2. A wire mesh shaped about the same as the wooden frame. Both mothers were equipped with a breast that delivered milk and contained a light bulb for warmth.

7.  The mothers were placed in cubicles and eight infant monkeys were randomly assigned to the two groups.  Purpose? › Dr. Harlow was attempting to separate the influence of nursing from the influence of contact comfort on the monkeys’ behavior toward the mother.

8.  The fulfilling of biological needs such as hunger and thirst was of almost no importance in the monkeys’ choice of a mother.  The time spent with the cloth mother was drastically different than the time spent with the wire mother – despite the fact that both mothers provided equal forms of nourishment.

9.  When children are afraid, they will seek out the comfort of their mothers.  Harlow wanted to find out what would happen when a fearful object was placed in the cage.  How would the monkeys behave?

10.  Whenever the monkeys found themselves faced with something frightening, they would run to the cloth mother for comfort – even if they received their milk from the wire monkey.

11.  Open- field test  He placed young monkeys in a small, unfamiliar room containing various objects.  He was examining the tendency of young monkeys to adapt to and explore the strange situation with or without the presence of the mother.

12.  When the cloth mother was present, the monkeys would explore and adventure into the new surroundings.  When the wire mother or no mother was present, the monkeys would freeze with fear and engage in emotional behaviors such as crying, crouching, and thumb sucking.

13.  Dr. Harlow wanted to know if long periods of separation would affect the attachment formed between the monkeys and their mothers.  When the monkeys reached 6 months of age, they were separated for short periods of time, and then reunited.

14.  After 30 days, the monkeys rushed towards the cloth mother and clutched tightly when they were reunited.  The need for contact comfort was greater than the natural tendency for exploration.

15.  Contact comfort proved to be more important in the development of attachment between infant monkeys and their mothers – more so than the mother’s ability to provide nourishment.  It DISPROVED the theory that the quality of feeding was the driving force behind infant- mother bond – therefore males can participate on equal terms too.

16.  It has been shown that greater skin to skin contact between a mother and her young infant enhances attachment.  However, the attachment process is slower (6 months) in humans than in monkeys (first couple days).

17.  This research has influenced the kind of care we provide for children in orphanages or hospital settings.  Fathers feel more adequate to assume a larger role in the care-giving process.  Enhanced the prospect of adoption because an adoptive parent can odder a child just as much contact comfort as a biological parent.  Adults lacking in social contact experienced everyday life events as more stressful, had a higher risk of high blood pressure, healed from injuries more slowly, and slept more poorly.

18.  Do we as humans have the right to subject monkeys (or any other animals) to potentially harmful situations for the sake of research?

19.  It disproved the theory that only mothers would be able to provide for children at a young age because they are the only ones that can provide nourishment – now males can play an equal role.

20.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg9QCeA4 FJs&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg9QCeA4 FJs&feature=related  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLrBrk9D XVk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLrBrk9D XVk