The Harlow's Monkey Experiment

Harry Harlow and Margaret Harlow were American psychologists who were best known for their experiments on monkeys in order to test that attachment comes from an association with nourishment, but later realized that attachment derived from body contact.

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Husband and wife worked together on this experiment.

Who?

Harry Harlow and Margaret Harlow isolated infant monkeys from their mothers and raised them in individual cages with two artificial mothers to see whether they would prefer the mother wrapped in terry cloth and had no feeding  bottle or a cold and rough mother with a feeding bottle.

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Young rhesus monkeys were used to conduct this research.

What?

The Harlow's Monkey Experiment took place in 1958. 

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The experiment was conducted between 1958 and 1963.

When?

The Harlow's Monkey Experiment took place at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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Much of the reasearch was conducted here.

Where?

The reason for the Harlow's Monkey Experiment was to find out if the infant monkeys would prefer comfort or food, and surprisingly the monkeys tended to prefer the comfort over the food. The comfort often helped with anxiety that the monkeys experienced, and when exploring their environment they would use the artificial mother with terry cloth as a “safe base.” The Harlows noticed that whenever the monkeys were feeling anxious, they would cling to their cloth mothers for comfort.

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The infant monkeys later struggled to interact with other monkeys and to mate.

Why?

Although this experiment was able to overturn the idea that attachment is derived from an association with nourishment, many believe that the ethics behind this research and the cruelty done to the infant monkeys is something that people should be concerned about. The infant monkeys were separated of their biological mothers from birth, and were isolated from the rest of the young monkeys, harming their ability to socialize with others.

The young rhesus monkeys were placed in social isolation.

Controversy behind the Experiment

Video Clip on the Harlow's Monkey Experiment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbEdNJ-e-Yc

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Module 45 | AP Psychology