Harlow

• What was Harlow's procedure?

  1)In a experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire models.

  2)In both conditions there was a wired mother and a cloth mother in condition 1 there was a wired model with milk and in condition 2 there is a cloth mother without milk.

  3) Harlow then proceeded to scare the baby monkey's with a noisy mechanical teddy.
• What was Harlow's findings?

  1. He found that when the baby monkeys were scared they cuddled the cloth mother in sought of comfort.
  2. This was regardless of which mother had the milk. Some monkeys even stretched across to the wire model mother to feed while still clinging onto the cloth mother. These results show that contact comfort is the most important in attachment behaviour.
• What was the whole point of Harlow's study?

  Tested the idea that soft objects serve some of the functions of a mother.
• What was the maternally deprived monkey's like as adults?

  There was severe consequences for those reared with the wire models but also seen with those reared with cloth mothers as they did not have normal social behaviours. This means they was aggressive towards other monkeys and would neglect and sometimes kill their own child.
• What is a disadvantage of Harlow's study?

  P=Harlow's study is argued to be extremely unethical.

  E=The study caused physical and emotional long term distress to the monkey's within the experiment as they were taken away from their mother's and placed in a cage for experimental conditions. This affected the monkey's ability to form later attachments many of which were aggressive or ended up passing away.

  C=Thus an experiment like this undermines the approch due to the harmed caused.
• What is an advantage of Harlow's research?

  P=Real world application

  E=Has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand the importance of bonding experience on a childs development and can now intervene to prevent any negative outcomes. Additionaly has helped zoo keepers and breading programmes in the wild.

  C=Thus harlow's theory is not just theoretical but pratical and has had a postive societal impact.
• What is a criticism of Harlow's reserach?

  P=The ability to genralise finding's and conclusions from monkey's to humans is questioned.

  E=Although Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz's birds, humans brain and behaviour is much more complex than monkey's as human behaviour is governed by concious feelings unlike monkeys.

  C=Thus harlow's research cannot be genralised and lacks population validity.