Lesson 9: Harlow

Question 1

What did Harlow want to achieve?

Answer 1

Wanted to demonstrate that mother love (attachment) was not based on the feeding bond as concluded by the learning theory

Question 2

What was his procedure?

Answer 2

• Created two wire mothers, one wrapped in soft cloth and the other left wirey.
• 8 infant Rhesus Monkeys were separated for their mom at birth and studied for 165 days
• They were placed in a cage with both wire mothers
• Four monkeys received milk from the soft cloth mother, and the other four got it from the wore mother
• The time spent with each mother was measured
• Observations were made from the monkeys responses to being frightened by a mechanical teddy bear and how they coped with exploring a room with toys

Question 3

What were the findings?

Answer 3

• All monkeys spent the most time with the soft cloth mother, even if it wasn’t feeding them
• Those fed by the wire mother only stayed to feed and returned to the soft cloth mother
• When scared, all monkeys clung to the soft cloth monkey and when playing with new objects, the monkeys kept one foot in the soft cloth mother. In a new environment, they were not confident enough to explore without the soft cloth mother

Question 4

What were the Long Term Effects?

Answer 4

• They were studied as they grew up
• They grew up abnormal and froze/fled when approached by other monkeys. They did not show normal mating behaviour and did not cradle their own babies
• If monkeys spent time with other monkeys, they could recover but only if this happened before 3 months.

Question 5

Evaluation (+)

Answer 5

• Food is not necessary for attachment, babies often attach to people who play with the,. In 39% of cases, the mother fed the baby, but the child was more attached to someone else.

Question 6

Evaluation (-)

Answer 6

• Study is unethical, monkeys were removed from their mother which is traumatic, and then deliberately scared. This led to long term emotional harm and they could not care for their own children as they had not been taken cared of
• Problematic to extrapolate the findings to humans, a non species attachment may not apply to a human attachment. Humans are physiologically different and have different influences e.g culture, society, peers and upbringing. Humans also have a lore complex attachment as seen with the different types