Harlow’s Monkeys

• What was the procedure into Harlow’s Monkey Experiment?

  Tested the idea that soft objects serve some of the functions of a mother.

  • he reared 16 monkeys in two different models (mothers): wire monkey and cloth monkey
  • The wire monkey would provide food
• what were the findings of Harlow’s Experiment?

  • baby monkeys cuddled with the cloth monkey and preferred the cloth covered monkey then the were monkey
  • the monkeys sought comfort in the cloth monkey when frightened -> showing contact comfort is more important then food
  • only left cloth monkey to get food from wire monkey
• what were the long term effects of Harlow’s study?

  • monkeys that were reared in social environments went on to develop into healthy adults
  • whereas the monkeys raised in the experiment went on to display dysfunctional behaviours in adult life: being timid, unpredictable with other monkeys, difficulty with mating, females = inadequate mothers
• Real-World value of Harlow’s experiment

  Howe 1998:

  • helps social workers and psychologists to understand the lack of bonding between parents and children, and that may be a risk factor in child development
  • helps us to understand the importance of attachment figures
• Strength of Harlow’s experiment

  generalisable:

  • monkeys and humans are more alike as they share common traits as they are both mammals

  this means that the behaviours found in the experiment will be more accurate/ more valid
• Negative of Harlow’s experiment:

  Ethical issues:

  • caused severe long terms effects on the monkeys used in the experiment
  • However findings are practical & applicable
• consequence of Harlow’s experiment

  confounding variables: the wire monkey

  • wire monkey didnt look like a monkey or similar to the cloth monkey in the experiment.
  • so did the baby monkey stay on the cloth monkey as it closely resembled a monkey?

  causes a major internal validity problem