Harlow's Monkeys - Harlow (1959)

INTRO:

• Harlowused Rhesus monkeys to see if attachments are primarily formed through food as explained by learning theory.
• Newborn monkeys were separated from their mothers and raised in isolation in cages.  
• In each cage was a baby blanket and the infant monkeys became distressed whenever the blanket was removed, a similar reaction to when baby monkeys are separated from their mothers.  This suggested that attachment was not based on association with food.
• He wanted to know if the physical padding of a body created the environment for attachment to take place or whether food was the only concern.
• If food were the only priority, one might expect attachment to be short-lived once the baby can feed itself.  If comfort were as important as food, one might expect the attachment bond to be stronger and for a longer period.

AIM:

• To test learning theory by comparing attachment behaviour in baby monkeys given a wire surrogate mother producing milk with those given a soft towelling mother producing no milk.

METHOD:

• 2 types of surrogate mother were constructed - a harsh, wire mother and a soft, towelling mother. 
• 16 baby monkeys were used - 4 in each of 4 conditions:

1. Cage with wire mother with milk and towelling mother no milk.

2. Cage with wire mother no milk and towelling mother with milk.

3. Cage with wire mother with milk.

4. Cage with towelling mother with milk.

• The amount of time spent with each mother, as well as feeding time, was recorded.
• The monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to test for mother preference during stress.
• A larger cage was also used to test the monkeys degree of exploration.

RESULTS:

• When given the choice, monkeys preferred contact with the towelling mothers, regardless of whether they produced milk.  They even stretched across to the wire mother to feed while still clinging to the towelling mother.
• Monkeys with only a wire mother had diarrhoea, a sign of stress.
• When frightened, monkeys clung to the towelling mother in conditions where she was available.
• In the larger cage conditions, monkeys with towelling mothers explored more and visited their surrogate mother more often.

CONCLUSIONS:

• Rhesus monkeys have an innate, unlearned need for contact comfort, suggesting that attachment concerns emotional security more than food.
• Contact comfort is associated with lower levels of stress and a willingness to explore, indicating emotional security.

EVALUATION:

• This study involved animals and therefore we cannot necessarily extrapolate (generalise) the results to humans.
• Ethical issues involving the separation of baby monkeys and the stress caused to them.
• Over time, Harlow distanced himself from the work of Bowlby and Ainsworth as well as Lorenz's views on imprinting.  He especially did not believe that his work supported Bowlby's belief of a child's innate need for mother love.

• In Harlow's studies of dependency in monkeys are the monkeys really experiencing love with the cloth mother?
• Harlow argues that if the monkey is stressed and that stress is reliveed by the cloth mother, he runs to his mother to have contact, which changes his whole personality.  This is the monkey being offered affection and contact comfort.  He builds up his reserves, becomes curious, happy to explore - even though his mother does nothing.  She cannot return the cuddles, but still she soothes him and provides comfort.
• Harlow believed he could sue science to study love.
• Believed the relationship between a mother and her child could hold the key to relationships throughout the rest of a child's life.
• In his studies, Harlow's monkeys spent up to 18 hours a day cuddling, choosing nurturing over sustenance.
• The experience of comfort and love was crucial to all these monkeys.
• Harlow believes he's shown how a want of love can damage a child for life as incapable of forming healthy relationships with other kinds of people.

• Harlow showed that it wasn't just food that formed attachment but love.
• When Harlow did his research the traditional view was that Mother's shouldn't have too much contact with their children for fear of spoiling them.  
• Harlow changed that view and changed parenting forever.  Seems obvious now, but was groundbreaking at the time.
• University of Wisconsin in 1932, the primate lab was started.  Monkey colony there was devastated by a TB epidemic and monkeys were orphaned.
• Noticed that when the cloth diapers that were placed in their cages were removed and changed, the monkeys became visibly upset.  He wondered why.
• Early part of Harlow's career was about learning and cognition - how does a baby learn to love his mother?
• Harlow liked to challenge convention.
• It was the hey day of B.F. Skinner - champion of behaviourism - who believed that it was conditioning - reward and reinforcement.  The notion that anyone could be motivated by curiosity was unheard of.
• Harlow showed that the drive to find affection was stronger than the drive to find food or water.
• Was this behaviour genetic or learned?  In Harlow's time, the belief was that it was hard-wired, he showed it was not. 

• "Father of the cloth Mother"!
• Some argue that by this ingenious research we learned what everyone had known...
• ...however critics argue that it didn't tell us that much.  Is it any wonder that the monkey didn't want to cling to the wire mother?  Not a surprise, it was the monkey's only place of food, similar to me stopping off at a greasy spoon on a long car journey because it's the only option, I don't like it but it fulfils a need and averts hunger.  Food is crucial but social attachment is more important and a stronger drive.  If you can't form a relationship you're not going to survive either as an individual or as a species.
• Other critics argue that experiments had already been done before Harlow - Rennie Spitz's work on children in orphanages - work was already being done, without the high drama of Harlow's studies.
• Psychologists say that the criteria for studying deprivation are to only disrupt the adaption you're looking to study but Harlow wiped out everything, wiped out ALL experiences and raised crazy, insane monkeys.
• Even at the time people felt it was going too far, Harlow himself said "we began as sadists trying to produce abnormality".  Some animals were isolated for 15 years - what are the benefits of that?
• Some argue that in this case the results do extrapolate e.g. romanian orphans.

• Others argue that some of the best research is right at the edge - challenges ethics and methodological right to the limit.
• Harlow had a huge influence on the next generation of researchers in the field.