Harlow Animal Study

• Procedure:

  16 rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers immediately after birth and placed in cages with access to two surrogate mothers, one made of wire and one covered in soft terry towelling cloth

  
  

  1) eight of the monkeys could get milk from the wire mother

  2) eight monkeys could get milk from the cloth mother

  
  

  The animals were studied for various length of time
• Results:

  Both groups of monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother( even if she had no milk).

  
  

  The infants of the second group would ony go to the wire mother when hungry.

  
  

  Once fed they would return to the cloth mother for most of the day. If a frightening object was placed in the cage the infant took refuge with the cloth mother.

  
  

  The infant would explore more when the cloth mother was present
• More about Study:

  Then Harlow observed the difference in behaviour differences between the monkeys who had grown up with surrogate mothers and those normal mothers. They found that:

  
  

  - They were much more timid

  - They didn't know how to behave with other monkeys and could be aggressive

  - They had difficulty with mating

  - They females were 'inadequate' mother some even killing their offspring

  
  

  Those behaviours were observed only in the monkeys who were left with the surrogate mothers for more 90 days. For those left less than 90 days the effects could be reversed if laced in a normal environment where they could for attachments
• Evaluation A03:

  P- Theoretical value:

  E-Harlow's findings have had a profound effect on psychologist's understanding of human mother-infant attachments.

  
  

  E-Most importantly Harlow showed that attachment does not develop because of being fed by a mother figure but because of contact comfort

  
  

  L-Harlow also showed us the importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development including the ability to hold down adult relationships and successfully rear children
• Useful-real life app link onto last point etc.


  P- It has useful real-life application

  E-as it allows parents to know the important factors in early childhood so that they can know how to form an attachment relationships/ how to maintain attachments in relationships.

  E-It's an also inform organisations such as CPS and social workers to recognise signs of child neglect and

  L-how to intervene and resolve this for children who have not experienced a good quality early attachment relationship
• Findings:

  Babies would spend 17-18 hrs on the cloth-mother
• Useful real-life applications

  Harlow and Lorenz imprinting influenced the theoretical work of Bowlby (critical period) and Ainsworth

  Also influenced key changes in orphanages, adoption agencies, social services etc. to ensure that children are adopted before 2yrs so that they can form an attachment relationship
• A03: Bowlby SUP EV.

  P- Harlow and Lorenz imprinting influenced the theoretical work of Bowlby,

  E-Bowbly supports the critical period theory arguing that it is similar to in humans around 6 to 30 months and if an attachment does not form, it will result in permanent development problems.

  C- However, showing the difficulty of applying animal research to humans, later research on orphans (Rutter et al.)

  L-suggests that unlike with geese, this period is 'sensitive' , not critical.
• A03: Difficult in generalisation to humans


  P- On one hand

  E-(Green 1994) suggests on a biological level all mammals have the same brain structure as humans; the only differences relates to size and the number of connections and monkeys bear similarities in child-rearing practices by the way they breastfeed

  C- However, it can be argued that human behaviour (attachment relationships) is still more complex from the way in which cloth-covered wired monkeys reflect attachment as the emotional connections and interactions in humans when brought up make multiple attachments with others e.g. through nursery etc.

  L- therefore, behaviour is difficult to be extrapolated/generalised
• A03: Ethical Issues


  P-There are ethical issues with Harlow's study,

  E-this is because according to Bateman's decision cube it goes against ethical issues .

  E-Although there was a high quality of research (standardisation and control) it had high animal suffering the monkeys were timid and suffered severe trauma such as when female monkeys had babies they were 'inadequate' mothers and often killed their children and were unable to demonstrate normal mating behaviour.

  E-Harlow's study allowed psychologists and social works to understand the importance of contact comfort in human over food however, there are other reasonable and ethical ways to attain this knowledge without being unethical such as reviewing case studies of infants