Lesson 9 Harlow Flashcards
What did Harlow do?
Harlow conducted a landmark study on attachment to demonstrate how attachment is not formed by learning theory
What is the procedure of harlows experiment?
Harlow created two wire surrogate mothers, one left with bare wire and one wrapped in a soft cloth. 8 baby rhesus monkeys were separated at birth and studied for 165 days and each placed in their own cage with both mothers. Four of the monkeys received milk from the wire mother, the other 4 received it from the cloth mother.
During thr 165 days they were studied for, the time spent with each mother was measured. Observations were also made of the monkeys responses by being frightened to a mechanical teddy bear and how they coped with exploring a completely new room with new toys
What were the findings of Harlow
All 8 monkeys spent the most time on the cloth mother regardless of whether it fed them or not. Those who were fed by the wire mother only stayed on it long enough to get milk, then returned back to cloth mother.
When frightened by mechanical teddy bear, they all ran to the cloth mother. And when playing with new toys or exploring the room, they would always keep one foot on the cloth mother. They were not confident to explore the new room unless they had the soft cloth mother with them
What are the long term effects or the study?
Harlow continued to study the monkeys as they grew up. He found they developed abnormally. They froze or fled when encountered by other monkeys and they showed abnormal mark g behaviour, and did not cradle their own babies
He found monkeys could recover with time spent with other monkeys, but only if it happened before 3 months old. Ageing past 3 months with only a wire mother was something they could not recover from
What did Schaffer and Emerson find?
They also found that food was not needed for attachment to form. They found that babies attached to people who played with them, rather than who fed them. In 39% of cases despite the mother feeding the baby, they baby was more attached to someone else
What problem does this study have ethically?
It is considered unethical as monkeys were removed from their mothers at birth. This would be traumatic for mothers and the babies. They were also scared deliberately to see how they would react. This lead to long term emotional harm as when they encountered other monkeys when they were older, they wither froze or fled. They had difficulty mating and cradling their children since they were not cared for themselves
Why can’t we generalise findings to human infants?
What applies to non human species may not apply to human infants. Humans are psychologically very different to monkeys as well as having several other influences that monkeys do not have, such as culture, society, peers, upbringing….
Why can’t we compare monkeys to humans?
The bond of attachment in humans is much more complex than that in monkeys. For example humans have multiple types of attachments such as resistant, secure and avoidant.
