Animal studies of attachment

• Harlow's 1958 monkey study: Aim

  • To determine the cause of attachment in primates. To challenge the behaviourists cupboard love theory.
• Harlow's 1958 monkey study: Procedure

  • 8 monkey's were separated from their mother at birth.
  • Under controlled environment the infant monkeys were reared with two mother surrogates.
  • one surrogate mother was made from mesh and dispensed food whilst the other was covered in soft cloths and did not dispense food.
• Harlow's 1958 monkey study: Procedure

  • Harlow recorded the amount of time each infant monkey spent with each surrogate mother.
  • There was also a fear condition where a mechanical monkey scared the infants and Harlow recorded which monkey they ran to for comfort.
• Harlow's 1958 monkey study: Findings

  • All 8 monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother - up to 23 hours a day and only went to the wired mother for food.
  • During the fear condition all monkeys clung to the cloth mother for help and comfort.
• Harlow's 1958 monkey study: Evaluation

  Internal Validity + Scientific credibility

  • Harlow's study has high replicability and thus reliability due to the highly controlled environment.
  • Additionally, an empirical method was used as it was an observational study.
• Harlow's 1958 monkey study: Evaluation

  Ethical issues

  • Harlow has been accused by many psychologist for animal cruelty. It's clear that the infant monkeys used did suffer permanent psychological damage.
  • A follow up observation found that the monkeys had abnormal social development issues and both sexual and parenting behavioural problems.
• Harlow's 1958 monkey study: Evaluation

  Low generalisability

  • Due to the participants being monkeys, it's difficult to extrapolate findings and apply them to human behaviour around attachment.
  • This is because many psychologists believe that humans have a higher emotional intelligence than animals.