9 - Harlow and his Monkeys Flashcards
What was Harlow trying to prove?
That attachment was not based on the feeding bond between mother and infant as predicted by learning theory.
What did Harlow do to try and prove his theory?
Harlow created two wire mothers ; one was wrapped in a soft cloth.
8 infant rhesus monkeys were separated from their mother at birth and were studied for 165 days.
They were placed in a cage with the two wire mothers.
Four monkeys got milk from the cloth mother and the other four got milk from the wire mother.
Observations were made of the monkeys responses to being frightened by a mechanical teddy bear, and how they coped with exploring a new room full of unfamiliar toys.
What did Harlow find?
All 8 monkeys spent most of their time on the soft cloth mother, regardless of which mother they got milk from.
The monkeys fed by the wire mother only stayed long enough to get milk then returned to the soft cloth mother.
When sacred, all clung to the soft cloth mother. When playing with new objects, all kept one foot on the soft cloth mother.
When placed in a new environment they were not confident enough to explore the the room unless the soft cloth mother was with them.
What were the long term effects on the monkeys?
They developed abnormally
They froze or fled when approached by other monkeys
They didn’t show normal mating behaviour
They didn’t cradle their babies
If they spent time with other monkeys before they were 3 months old then they could recover, but having more than 6 months with only a wire mother was something they couldn’t recover from.
What are the advantages of this study?
Schaffer and Emerson also found that food is not necessary for attachment to form. They discovered that babies are often attached to people who play with them, rather than people who feed them. In 39% of cases even thought the mother was the one who fed the baby, the baby was more attached to someone else.
What are the disadvantages of this study?
It could be considered unethical. The monkeys were removed from their mothers, which was traumatic, and then deliberately scared. This led to long term emotional harm, as when they saw other monkeys later they would freeze or run. They also couldn’t care for their own young as they never experienced that themselves.
It is problematic to extrapolate from this study to attachment in human infants. What applies to a non-human species doesn’t necessarily apply to human infants. Humans are physiologically very different from monkeys as well as having other influences that monkeys don’t have such as culture, society, peers upbringing etc. The bond between human infants and their attachment figures is far more complex, for instance, there are several different types of attachment styles that human infants can have.
