Harlow Flashcards
Explain the aim of Harlow’s Study.
Harlow aimed to study the effects of maternal deprivation on rhesus monkeys and how this would influence their development.
How did Harlow experiment upon the monkeys?
He separated the mother and child instantly after birth before they could form any type of attachment or bonding. Harlow then placed the children within a cage which had a wire mother who offered food or a cushioned mother who didn’t have food. Harlow observed the way in which the children interacted with the types of mother and their preferences for how the fake mother would tend to their needs.
Harlow also placed the unattached monkeys into an environment full of foreign objects to assess the way in which they interacted with their new circumstances.
Which mother was preferred by the monkeys?
The monkeys largely opted for comfort rather than food, suggesting that maternal warmth was more important than simply acquiring basic resources which would sustain survival.
How did the monkeys react to the foreign environment?
The unattached monkeys never strayed far from the wire mother and only did so temporarily, preferring the comfort of the cushioned mother to the potentially harmful foreign stimuli which surrounded them.
What does the monkeys reaction to the new environment suggest about the importance of maternal bonding?
The monkeys reaction indicates that it’s essential for primates to create maternal bonds in order to feel secure enough that they can stray from their caregiver and explore the immediate environment. This suggests that those who don’t form strong maternal relationships will actually struggle to create new friends and experience the world because they lack the courage to leave the mother who never truly attended to their basic needs.
What is a strength of Harlow’s research?
He studied primates which have a similar physiology to human beings; such results can therefore be extrapolated with increased likelihood of them being accurate and representative of our experiences as human beings. This data is therefore of a greater validity and of more use to psychologists and scientists.
