Harlow (1959) The Need for Contact Comfort, and Further Research

Question 1

Method

Answer 1

• Aimed to find out whether baby monkeys would prefer a souce of food or a source of comfort and protection as an attachment figure,
• Rhesus monkeys were raised in isolation,
• They had two surrogate mothers, one made of wire mesh and contained a feeding bottle, the other made of cloth but didn’t contain a feeding bottle.

Question 2

Results

Answer 2

• The monkeys spent most of their time clinging to the cloth surrogate and only used the wire surrogate to feed,
• The cloth surrogate seemed to give them comfort in new situations,
• When the monkeys grew up they showed signs of social and emotional disturbance,
• The females were bad mothers who were often violent towards their offspring.

Question 3

Conclusion

Answer 3

• Infant monkeys formed more of an attachment with a figure that provided comfort and protection,
• Growing up in isolation affected their development.

Question 4

Evaluation

Answer 4

• Was a laboratory experiment; strict control of variables,
• Unlikely the results were affected by an extraneous variable,
• Can argued that the results can’t be generalised to human beings; are qualitatively different to monkeys,
• Ethic problems; monkeys put in a stressful situation; showed signs of being psychologically damaged,
• Isolation also means that the study lacked ecological validity,
• Can’t be replicated today, even as a laboratory experiment, due to ethical guidelines.

Question 5

Harlow and Zimmerman (1959) variation and its effects

Answer 5

• Added in a fearful stimulus; when a fearful object was placed in the cage, the monkey would cling to the cloth surrogate first before exploring the object,
• Monkeys in cages with only a wire surrogate would remain frozen or run wildly around the cage,
• Researchers concluded that a strong attachment with a primary caregiver is therefore highly important in the development of an infant.

Question 6

Harlow and Sumoi (1970) variation and its effects

Answer 6

• Aimed to investigate other factors in generating a strong attachment,
• When they placed a cloth surrogate with food and a cloth surrogate without food in the cage, they found that the one with food was preferred,
• Concluded that food may still be a significant factor in developing attachments.