harlow

• Harlow used rhesus monkeys to study attachment. He removed them from their mothers at birth, and then released them into a cage where there were 2 surrogate monkey mothers.
• The wire mother was made from plain wire mesh but provided a bottle that dispensed food. The cloth mother was covered in cloth and provided contact comfort.
• Harlow recorded the time that the monkeys spent with each surrogate mother. He found that monkeys preferred contact comfort over food, as they spent more time with the cloth mother than the wire mother.
• Harlow presented fear inducing stimuli, such as a loud mechanical bear, to the monkey to see which surrogate mother they turned to for protection and safety. Harlow found that this was the cloth mother. The monkeys clung to the cloth mother and eventually became brave enough to try attack the mechanical bear.
• Harlow also measured long-term effects of maternal deprivation on female rhesus monkeys. He found that monkeys that were maternally deprived in early life went on to lack social skills, and those that became mothers were inadequate and brutal towards their offspring.
• Harlow's main conclusions were:

  • Contact comfort is more important in attachment formation than food
  • A secure base is important to provide infants with safety and confidence to explore in times of fear
  • There are long-term effects for not forming an attachment
  • There is a critical period for forming an attachment, which is around 90 days