Harlow's monkeys

• Who carried out the monkey study?

  Harlow (1959)
• What was the aim of the Harlow study?

   To investigate whether attachment is based on comfort or feeding
• What was the procedure of Harlow's study?

  • Two artificial mothers were created with different heads.
  • One was made of wire and the other was covered in cloth.
  • They both fed the baby monkey with a bottle of milk.
  • Other versions had no bottle.
  • 8 rhesus monkeys were studied for 165 days.
  • For 4 of the monkeys, the milk bottle was placed in the wire mother and in the other 4, it was placed in the cloth mother.
  • Amount of time each infant spent with the different mothers was measured.
  • Observations were made when monkeys were scared by a mechanical teddy bear
• What were the findings of Harlow's monkeys?

  • All 8 monkeys spent most time on the cloth covered mother even despite 4 of them having the milk bottle on the wire mother
  • They then returned to the cloth mother shortly
  • All monkeys clung to the cloth-covered mother when exploring new objects and being frightened. 
• What was the conclusion of Harlow's study?

   Infants develop attachment not with the feeder but with the most contact comfort
• What were the long lasting effects of Harlow's monkey study?

  • Harlow reported that the monkeys grew abnormally.
  • They would freeze or flee within the presence of another monkey. 
  • Sexual behaviour:
  • They did not show normal mating behaviour and did not cradle their own children.
  • If motherless monkeys were exposed to monkeys before 3 months, they would recover
  • Past 6 months with wire monkey, they did not recover
• What was a possible confounding variable of the experiment?

  • Mothers’ heads were different, which could be a confounding variable.
  • It could be argued that the monkeys preferred the cloth mother to the wire mother
  • It had a more attractive head compared to the wire mother. 
  • The conclusion lacks internal validity
• Why can't animal studies generalise to humans?

  • Animal studies cannot generalise to humans as humans are capable of complex thought processes.
  • Human behaviour think consciously.
  • However, observations in animals can be seen in humans.
  • Harlow’s monkey study can be linked to Shaffer and Emerson who found that infants were attached most to who responded sensitively and quickly rather than who fed them.
  • Animal studies can be a helpful pointer but human studies should be replicated.
• What were ethical issues of Harlow's study?

  • The study created lasting emotional harm as monkeys could not form relationships with peers anymore.
  • They can be argued as necessary as we can never carry them out on humans.
  • We have to rely on extreme cases of neglect like genie who was abandoned in her house for 13 ½ years of her life.
  • As these awful case studies happened, we need to use experiments like Harlow to understand aspects of behaviour.