Prof. Tamara Arrington
COMM211

The need for touch is perceptible.
The need is so strong, you feel the need within you.

Need for Contact Comfort:
• These people are touching each other!
• Note their age.
• Note their color.
• Note the genders.
• Does it feel good?

Need for Contact Comfort:
• These people are touching.
• Note their age.
• Note their color.
• Note the genders.
• Does it feel good?

Need for Contact Comfort:
• These people are touching each other.

Need for Contact Comfort:
• These people are touching each other.
• Note their ages.
• They are males.
• Does it feel good?

Need for Contact Comfort:

Need for Contact Comfort:
•

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
• BA and PhD in psychology from
Stanford Univ. (1930)
• 1930 joined faculty
Univ. of Wisconsin
• 1931 established
Psychology Primate
Lab
– A Science Odyssey (1998). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/d atabank/entires/bharl.html

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
• “Harlow was intrigued by love.”
• He questioned the, then current, theory that love began as a feeding bond with the mother and applied by extension to other family members.
• In 1957, he began his, now famous, study of
rhesus monkeys.
» A Science Odyssey (1998). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entires/bharl.html

Harry Harlow
• Nonhuman primates can offer tremendous insights
into human development.
• Of all animals, apes and monkey are the most closely related to humans behaviorally, anatomically, and
physiologically.
• Rhesus monkeys share over 90% of their genes with those of humans.
» Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The Power of Touch in Labor and Infancy”.
(Retrieved 2001, January 30) http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm

Harry Harlow
• Rhesus monkeys and other primates offer researchers invaluable opportunities to study the
longitudinal effects of touch over the course of generations.
• These animals age from birth to maturity (onset of puberty) in 3 or 4 years, instead of 15 to 20 years, as is the case with humans.
» Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The Power of Touch in Labor and Infancy”. (Retrieved
2001, January 30) http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
•

Harry Harlow in his primate lab at the University of Wisconsin, with
Rhesus monkeys, in a 1964 photo. (Nina Leen / Timelife Pictures)

Harlow, shown in 1965 with an infant monkey and one of his milk-bearing wire surrogates.

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
•
– Harlow, H. “The Nature of Love in
Green, C. (2000, March). Classics in the History of Psychology. Toronto,
Ontario: York University

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
• And a wire mother was also provided
• Wire had food
• Cloth had no food
– Harlow, H. “The Nature of Love in Green,
C. (2000, March). Classics in the History of
Psychology. Toronto, Ontario: York
University

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
• The monkey preferred the cloth mother to the extent that it clung to the cloth mother while eating.
– Harlow, H. “The Nature of Love in Green,
C. (2000, March). Classics in the History of
Psychology. Toronto, Ontario: York
University

Harlow discovered that baby monkeys deprived of their mothers (left) would transfer their affections to a cloth surrogate. When they needed to eat, they would scamper over to a milk-bearing wire mother, but then quickly return to cuddle with the softer surrogate. (Images courtesy of Harlow Primate Laboratory
/ University of Wisconsin, Madison)

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
• RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENT All the rhesus monkeys raised in isolation were
– Fearful
– Easily frightened
– Did not mate
– Those artificially inseminated became abusive mothers
» Schaefer, R.T. (2001). Sociology (7 th ed). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
• RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENT cont.
• “The infants developed “autisticlike”syndrome, with grooming, self-clasping, social withdrawal and rocking.”
» The Why Files. (1999). The Science of Mother’s Day.
University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents.
» http://whyfiles.org/087mother/4.html

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
• Harlow used this bear for the fear
test. When Harlow put this in the cage with the isolated monkeys, they were afraid.
– Harlow, H. “The Nature of Love in
Green, C. (2000, March). Classics in the History of Psychology. Toronto,
Ontario: York University

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
• The typical response in the
fear test was to
cling to the cloth mother. (not the wire mother with the food)
– Harlow, H. “The Nature of Love in
Green, C. (2000, March). Classics in the History of Psychology. Toronto,
Ontario: York University

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
•
– Harlow, H. “The Nature of Love in
Green, C. (2000, March). Classics in the History of Psychology. Toronto,
Ontario: York University

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
•
– Harlow, H. “The Nature of Love in
Green, C. (2000, March). Classics in the History of Psychology. Toronto,
Ontario: York University

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
•
– Harlow, H. “The Nature of Love in
Green, C. (2000, March). Classics in the History of Psychology. Toronto,
Ontario: York University

Harry Harlow 1905-1981
• Another test.
• Babies taken from surrogate mothers and put in box alone with option of different doors to open.
• They responded with great preference for the picture of the cloth mother.
– Harlow, H. “The Nature of Love in Green, C.
(2000, March). Classics in the History of
Psychology. Toronto, Ontario: York University

What are the “implications” for humans that can be made?

Can there be similarities?

Implications For The
Human Socialization Process
to infants’ psychosocial well-being.
Critical = absolutely necessary….won’t happen without it.
» Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The Power of Touch in Labor and
Infancy”. (Retrieved 2001, Janaury 30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm

We know that in the Human
Socialization Process:
• Simple, systematic massage of premature infants can increase their weight by as much as 47%.
• Term infants receiving regular massage gain more
weight and develop better sleep patterns.
• Uninterrupted support during women’s labor (both
touch & emotional) results in significant decreases
in cesarean sections and epidural rates.
» Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The Power of Touch in Labor and Infancy”.
(Retrieved 2001, Janaury 30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm

We know that in the Human
Socialization Process:
• Researchers have long noted a depression-like response by infants to the absence of parental contact.
• Following WW II, Spitz coined the term
“anaclitic depression” to describe the clinical response of human infants to prolonged maternal separation.
» Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The Power of Touch in Labor and Infancy”.
(Retrieved 2001, Janaury 30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm

Implications For The
Human Socialization Process
• Monkey infants who were denied contact
– a “secure base” ceased to explore their environments
• Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The
Power of Touch in Labor and Infancy”.
(Retrieved 2001, Janaury 30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm
• Implication:
Depression in human children would result in lack of exploration of their environments which has implications for learning

Implications For The
Human Socialization Process
• Longitudinal studies of rhesus monkeys indicate that mother- infant bonding practices are repeated and reinforced from generation to generation.
• Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The Power of
Touch in Labor and Infancy”. (Retrieved 2001, Janaury
30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm
• Implication: The kind of bonding you received as a child will influence the kind of bonding you would have with a child of your own and they likewise and…on, and on,…and on..

Implications For The
Human Socialization Process
• Touch was more important to monkey infants than anything else they could receive from their mothers or mother surrogate – including food .
• Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The
Power of Touch in Labor and Infancy”.
(Retrieved 2001, Janaury 30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm
• Implication: A father caring for an infant should be just as effective as mother .
• Or, adoptive parents should be just as effective as the biological parent.

Implications For The
Human Socialization Process
• Deficits in early touch contact lead to behavioral and physiological problems that are both short – and
long-term.
• Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The
Power of Touch in Labor and Infancy”.
(Retrieved 2001, Janaury 30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm
• Implication: Infant touch deprivation may have lifelong effects on social
behaviors.

Implications For The
Human Socialization Process
• As adolescents and adults, rhesus monkeys reared in tactile isolation actively avoided most social contact.
• Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The
Power of Touch in Labor and Infancy”.
(Retrieved 2001, Janaury 30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm
• Could this contribute to social isolation in humans?

Implications For The
Human Socialization Process
• As adolescents and adults, rhesus monkeys reared in
tactile isolation tended to be hyper aggressive in the infrequent social interactions, habitually exhibiting behaviors similar to “anger” and “depression”
• Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The Power of
Touch in Labor and Infancy”. (Retrieved 2001, Janaury
30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm
• Could this be contributing to the many incidents of hyper aggression in the youth today?

Implications For The
Human Socialization Process
• Adolescent and adult rhesus monkeys reared in tactile isolation developed gross abnormalities in sexual behavior.
• Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The Power of
Touch in Labor and Infancy”. (Retrieved 2001, Janaury
30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm
• Could this be a contributing factor to gross sexual behaviors in humans?

Implications For The
Human Socialization Process
• By reinstating physical contact for touchderived monkey infants, in some cases, abnormal behaviors can be diminished considerably.
• Continuing Nursing Education Credit. “The
Power of Touch in Labor and Infancy”.
(Retrieved 2001, Janaury 30). http://www.eddesign.com/jjsite/introduc.htm
• Could we, give contact
comfort to neglected people and reduce their abnormal behaviors.
• Could someone help reduce our abnormal behaviors by giving
contact comfort to us?

Mary Carlson
• Mary Carlson, associate professor or
neuroscience and psychology at Harvard
Medical School says the …infant monkeys develop what she called an “autistic-like” syndrome with grooming, self-clasping, social withdrawal and rocking .
• (1999). The Science of Mother's Day. University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents. http://whyfiles.org/087mother/4.html

Carlson
• Carlson says the theme of Harlow’s work is that
“you are not really a monkey unless you were raised in an interactive monkey
environment.”
• (1999). The Science of Mother's Day. University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents.
• A major premise of communication: Our
Our human behaviors
are shaped by the groups to which we belong and the interactions that occur within those groups.

Carlson
• If Harlow’s monkey experiment was cruel to monkeys. What about the human deprivation in
Romanian orphanages, where communist dictator,
Nicolae Ceausescu was skeptical of all things touchyfeelie and therefore clamped down on social work and favored policies to raise the birth rate and established institutions for orphans and children whose parents could not care for them.
• (1999). The Science of Mother's Day. University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents. http://whyfiles.org/087mother/4.html

Carlson
• After Ceausescu was executed in the coup in 1989.
The orphanages were opened to a world that saw
warehouses for the unwanted.
• The children were in the third to tenth percentile for
physical growth, and “grossly delayed” in motor and
mental development.
• They rocked and grasped themselves like Harlow’s monkeys, and grew up with weird social values and
behaviors.
• (1999). The Science of Mother's Day. University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents. http://whyfiles.org/087mother/4.html

Carlson
• Chemical analysis showed abnormal cortisol profiles, indicating sever problems with the stress response.
• A study by Carlson of Romanian children in poorquality day care, had abnormal cortisol during the week, but when returned home for the weekend, it looked closer to normal than when at the day care.
• (1999). The Science of Mother's Day. University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents. http://whyfiles.org/087mother/4.html

Carlson
• As the orphans aged, many became homeless, with what Carlson calls “clumsy, sad, all inappropriate”
social interactions.
• To express affection, one boy might kiss another – on
top of the head.
• The youths were smiling and ingratiating and superficially friendly but unable to form permanent attachments.
• (1999). The Science of Mother's Day. University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents. http://whyfiles.org/087mother/4.html

Carlson
• To Carlson, the Romanian research has another implication. The consistent relationship between poor care and abnormal cortisol raises the question of
• (1999). The Science of Mother's Day. University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents. http://whyfiles.org/087mother/4.html

Barry Brazelton
• Q. Is day care good for children?
• A. can be. It had better be. It isn’t at present.
Over 60% of children are in child care you or I wouldn’t trust.