Harlows monkey experiment

Question 1

what was the aim of the experiment?

Answer 1

to investigate whether contact comfort or provision of food is more important when forming infant- mother attachment.

Question 2

what was the independent variable?

Answer 2

whether milk bottle was attached to cloth or wire surrogate

Question 3

what was the dependent variable?

Answer 3

time spent with the surrogates

Question 4

what was the method of this experiment?

Answer 4

1. separate newborn monkey and place inna cage with a cloth blanket
2. when the cloth blanket was taken out to get washed the monkeys started getting distressed
3. placed the monkeys in a isolated room with 2 surrogate mothers one cloth mother and one wire mother

Question 5

key findings from this experiment?

Answer 5

1. close bond doesn’t depend on food depend on hunger satisfsaction
   2.the monkeys separated from the mothers grew up with behavioural issues

Question 6

how did this experiment contribute to psychology?

Answer 6

• helped shift the belief that comfort has an important role in attachment
• fathers are seen just as capable of staying home so mothers can return to the workforce

Question 7

limitations of this experiment?

Answer 7

monkeys experienced psychological harm from being deprived from their mothers and were placed in stressful situations