Harlows classic studies revealed the importance of. Harlow believed that it is at 90 days for monkeys, and about 6 months for humans. First, four of them were placed with the two surrogates, and the cloth mother was fitted with a bottle that provided milk. In the next trial, the conditions for the other four babies were reversed. Harlow suggested that the same results apply to human babies that the timing is critical when it comes to separating a child from his or her mother.
Harlows monkey experiment reinforced the importance of motherandchild bonding. In his university of wisconsin laboratory, harlow probed the nature of love, aiming to illuminate its first causes and mechanisms in the relationships formed between infants and mothers. Thus, the experiment was designed as a test of the relative importance of the variables of contact comfort and nursing comfort. The purpose of the study was to examine their behavior in the laboratory to confirm bowlbys attachment theory. In this study, harlow took infant monkeys from their biological mothers and gave them two inanimate surrogate mothers. Based on this observation, harlow designed his nowfamous surrogate mother experiment. Harlow experimented with rhesus monkeys, an asian species thats assimilates to living with humans easily. Links to pubmed are also available for selected references. Full text full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version.
Get a printable copy pdf file of the complete article 1. Harry harlows rhesus monkey experiments in the 1950s contributed a great deal to psychologists understanding of attachment theory. History of psychiatry the evolution of harry harlow. Harlow presented his experiments with rhesus monkeys and surrogate mothers, dolls made of cloth and wire. Harlows monkey experiment the bond between babies and. During the first 14 days of life the monkeys cage floor was. Harry harlow, famous for his experiments with rhesus monkeys and cloth and wire mothers, was visited by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst john bowlby and by child psychologist bruno bettelheim in 1958.
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