-The surrogate mother experiment and isolated monkeys were both observational experiment
-He worked with controlled
environments where he
observed the monkeys
behavior
Citations
Findings
Other Findings
Adoption History: Harry Harlow, Monkey Love Experiments. (2012, February 24). Retrieved November 6, 2015.
Harry Harlow. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2015.
People and Discoveries. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2015.
Cherry, K. (n.d.). Who Was Psychologist Harry Harlow? Retrieved November 9, 2015.
The Experiment. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2015.
- Prevailing thought during experiments - affection should be limited with young children because paying attention to them would "spoil" them
- Many experts believed that the main force between mother and child was feeding
- Proved that for a child to develop normally they need physical closeness and security
- Affection has a large impact on child development
- Monkeys who were shown no affection had trouble gaining weight
- Behavior depends on ties with peers and family in early childhood
- Monkeys that had live mothers easily learned to play and socialize with other monkeys
- Monkeys with the cloth mothers were socially slow but caught up with the other monkeys within a year
- Babies that were raised with mothers but no playmates grew up to be innappropriatly aggressive
- Monkeys without playmates and mothers were unable to reproduce when older and socially incompetent
- Attachment is not only about hunger or thirst
- Love is vital for early childhood development
- During Harlow's time they believed that affection should be limited because it spoils children
- Showed importance of developing safe, secure, and supportive emotional bonds with caregivers during early childhood
How it Applies Today
- Experiments conducted between 1957-1967
- Involved shortly after birth separating young rhesus monkeys from their mothers
- 1958, presented results at the American Psychological Association
- Reported findings in his classical article entitled "The Nature of Love"
- By today's standards experiments are unethical
- Experiments help us to understand human child development
Influenced key changes in:
- orphanages
- adoption agencies
- social services groups
- child care providers
- parents
Major Experiment's
- Monkey Love Experiments
- Baby monkeys were seperated from their mothers a few hours after birth
- Raised by two surrogate mothers
- One made of wire
- One made of cloth
- Only one mother would dispense miilk
- In other experiments monkeys did not have a choice of mothers
Experiment Re-enactment
Important Key Terms
- Surrogate Mother: A person, animal, or things that takes on all or part of the role of mother to another person or animal
- Pit of despair: Also known as a vertical chamber apparatus that Harry Harlow used in his experiments.
- Isolation: To remain alone or apart from others
- Child Development: Biological, psychological, and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the end of adoloscence
Background and History
- Developmental Psychologist
- attended Reed College for 1 year but after taking aptitude test enrolled at Stanford University
- started as English major but switched to psych because his grades were so bad
- Studied with psychologist Lewis Terman
- 1930, earned his PhD in Psychology
- after graduating from Stanford he was offered a position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- There he established a Primate Laboratory where his isolation experiments were performed
Understanding Human Behavior: Harry Harlow