Harlow's research

• Harlow's monkey research-

  Procedure- Harlow created two wire mothers each with a different head. One wire mother additionally was wrapped in a soft cloth. 16 infant monkeys were studied for 165 days. The wire mother had a food dispenser, the cloth one did not supply food. The time each infant monkey spent with the two different mothers was recorded. Also, their responses to other objects were observed.
• Harlow's monkey research-

  Findings- All the monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth-covered mother whether or not it had the feeding bottle. The monkeys fed by the wire mother only spent a short time with it to get the milk. When frightened, all monkeys clung on to the cloth-covered mother. These findings suggest that infants do not develop attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering contact comfort.
• Long-lasting effects- Harlow continued to study these monkeys and noted the consequences of their early attachment experiences. He found that the motherless monkeys were socially abnormal and neglected their young as adults. Harlow also found that there were critical periods for these effects. If the motherless monkeys spent time with their monkey peers they seemed to recover only if it was before 90 days. After that, attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible
• Evaluation of Harlow's monkey study-

  Ethical issues- As the monkeys were considered to be similar enough to humans to generalise the findings, it can be said that their suffering was presumably quite human-like. There were lasting emotional effects as the monkeys found it difficult to form relationships with their peers. However the experiment can be Justified in terms of the significant effect it had on understanding the process of attachment, and the study has helped with better care for human infants.
• Evaluation of Harlow's monkey study-

  1. Even though monkeys and humans are more similar than geese and humans there are still differences in the way they function meaning the results cant be generalised to all humans as it's an animal study