AO1 - Harlow

• Aim: To investigate whether food or comfort is more important in the formation of attachments
• Method: Lab experiment
• Procedure:

  • 16 baby rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth and brought up in cages
  • cages contained surrogate mothers - a wire mother with milk (provided food) and a cloth mother without milk (provided comfort)
  • amount of time spent with each mother was recorded
  • monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to test which mother they preferred
  • long-term effects were recorded, such as sociability and relationships to their future offspring
• Findings:

  • monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother than the wire mother
  • when frightened the monkeys would go to the cloth mother
  • the monkeys later in life had emotional damage such as being more timid, being easily bullied, difficulty mating and females being inadequate mothers when they were older
• Conclusion: Contact comfort is the most important factor when forming an attachment