L9 - Harlow (1959)

Question 1

What did Harlow aim to demonstrate?

Answer 1

That mother love (attachment) was not based on the feeding bond between mother and infant as predicted by learning theory.

Question 2

Harlow’s Procedure

Answer 2

• He created two wire ‘mothers’ each with a different head, but one was wrapped fully in a soft cloth.
• Eight infant Rhesus monkeys were then separated from their mothers at birth and studied for 165 days.
• 4 of the monkeys received milk from their cloth mother, the other 4 received milk from their exposed wire mother.

Question 3

What problems were the monkeys made to face and react to?

Answer 3

• Being frightened by a mechanical teddy bear

- How they coped with exploring a new room full of unfamiliar toys

Question 4

Harlow’s Findings

Answer 4

• All 8 monkeys spent most of their time on the soft cloth mother, regardless of which money fed them.
• When frightened, all 8 monkeys clung to the soft cloth mother, and when placed in a new environment they were not confident enough to explore the new room unless the soft cloth mother was with them .

Question 5

Long-Term Effects of The Study

Answer 5

• Harlow continued to study the 8 monkeys as they grew up, and they developed abnormally, freezing or running when approached by other monkeys
• They did not cradle their own babies
• If the monkeys spent time with other monkeys before the age of 3 months, they may have been able to recover.

Question 6

+ Schaffer and Emerson found that food is not necessary for attachment to form…

Answer 6

• They discovered that babies are often attached to people who play with them, rather than people who feed them.
• In 39% of the cases, even though the mother was the one who fed the baby, the baby was more attached to someone else.

Question 7

– Why may this study be considered unethical?

Answer 7

• The monkeys were removed from their mothers, which would’ve been very traumatic, and they were then deliberately scared to see how they would react.
• This led to long term emotional harm, and other long term effects such as running or freezing when encountered by other adult monkeys.

Question 8

– Why is it problematic to extrapolate the findings from this study to attachment in human infants?

Answer 8

• What applies to non-human species doesn’t necessarily apply to human infants.
• Humans are physiologically very different to monkeys as well as having other influences that monkeys don’t have, such as culture, society, peers, upbringing etc.

Question 9

– Why can we not compare humans to monkeys?

Answer 9

• The attachment bond between human infants and their attachment figures are far more complex that monkeys.
• e.g. there are several different types of attachment styles that human infants can have (secure, avoidant, resistant)