Harlow A01

• What did Harlow want to study

  -the mechanisms by which new born rhesus monkeys bond to their mothers
• Harlow reared some monkeys in isolation? What happened to them?

  -some died others were frightened and behaved in an abnormal manner.

  -they could not interact with other monkeys even when they were older
• Others were reared with surrogate mothers

  -8 monkeys were seperated from their mothers immediately after birth and placed in cages with access to two surrogate mothers one made of wire and one covered in towelling cloth

  -four could get milk from the wire mother and four from the cloth mother

  -the animals were studied for 165 days
• What were the findings

  -both groups of monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother even if she had no milk

  -infant would only go to wire mother when hungry

  -once fed it would return to the cloth mother and the cloth mother was also used as a safe base(it reduced the youngsters fears)
• what were some behavioural differences that Harlow observed between the monkeys who had grown up with surrogate mothers and those with normal mothers?

  -they were much more timid and didnt know how to act with other monkeys

  -easily bullied and would'nt stand up for themselves

  -had difficulties mating

  -the females were inadequate mothers
• what did Harlow conclude

  -for a monkey to develop normally it must have some interaction with an object to which they can cling during the first months of life (critical period)

  -he found it was social deprivation rather than maternal that the young monkeys were suffering from
• How did Harlow know it was social deprivation

  -when he brought some other infant monkeys up on their own but with 20 minutes a day in a playroom with three other monkeys he found that they grew up to be quite normal emotionally and socially