Harlow Flashcards
(4 cards)
AO1
Harlow investigated attachment within 16 baby monkeys.
He separated the baby monkeys from their mothers soon after birth and reared them in a cage with 2 wire mothers.
In one condition, milk from a feeding bottle was dispensed by the plain-wire mother and the other was wrapped in a soft cloth but offered no food. In the 2nd condition, the milk was dispensed by the cloth covered mother.
He found that the baby monkeys only went to the wire ‘mother’ when it needed food, but spent the vast majority of time clinging to the mother covered in cloth, presumably because it offered some comfort.
Harlow observed behavioural differences between the monkeys who grew up with the surrogate wire mothers and those with normal mothers; more timid, didn’t know how to act with other monkeys, were easily bullied, had difficulty mating, and the females were inadequate mothers.
Harlow concluded that for a monkey to develop normally, they must have some interaction with an object to which they can cling to during the first months of life - critical period.
Monkeys need not just food, but contact comfort & warmth to form attachment.
AO3 - lab experiment
Harlow’s study was a lab experiment. Therefore it was highly controlled due to the ability to manipulate variables. This means that the experiment can be repeated to most likely produce the same results, so has high reliability.
However, as it was conducted in an artificial setting, has low ecological validity. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalised.
AO3 - ethical issues
Ethical issues - psychological harm to the monkeys. The experiment caused long-term consequences for the monkeys in numerous aspects of their lives. This prevented them from functioning normally, and even caused the females to become inadequate mothers due to the inadequate wire-mothers they experienced in their critical period. Therefore, the costs of the experiment did not outweigh the benefits.
AO3 - practical application (zoos)
Harlow’s research has significant practical value, especially in the design of zoos and the care of animal shelters. His research demonstrated the importance of attachment figures and contact comfort, which means that zoos should ensure that animals have the opportunity to form such attachments in order to ensure healthy development.
