By: Meagan
Lilley
 Was born on October 31, 1905
 Originally named Harry Israel
 Grew up in Fairfield, Iowa
 Family was poor
 Spent a year at Reed College in Portland, Oregon
 Got into Stanford University on a special aptitude test.
 Spent a semester as an
English major but then
changed to Psychology
 Studied under Lewis
Terman, who helped
shape Harlow’s future
 Terman is also the one
who advised Harry to
change his last name
 Harlow took his father’s
middle name
 Harlow married Clara Mears
 Terman’s daughter
 They had two children, which Clara took when she left
him for being a “workaholic”
 He accepted a job as a professor at the University of
Wisconsin
 persuaded the University to construct a Primate
Laboratory
 His second wife, Peggy Kuenne, was a colleague in
child psychology and together they had two children
 Harlow's motivation for his
research was to understand
love
 The maternal bond between
mother and child was
thought to begin through
feeding
 Beginning in 1957, Harlow
began to investigate the
nature of this bond
 He removed infant rhesus
monkeys from their mothers
six to twelve hours after birth
and raised them instead with
surrogate mothers made
either of wire or of wood
covered with cloth
 First group = No food from Terrycloth Mother. Food
from Wire Mother
 Second group = Food from terrycloth mother. No food
from Wire Mother
 Even when the wire mother was the source of food and
warmth, the infant monkey spent a greater amount of
time clinging to the cloth surrogate
 These results led researchers to believe the need for
closeness and affection goes deeper than a need for
warmth
 The monkeys ran to the
cloth mother for protection
and comfort, no matter
which mother provided
them with food.
 Monkeys placed in an
unfamiliar room without
their cloth mothers would
freeze in fear and cry, crouch
down low, or suck their
thumbs
 Monkeys placed in this
situation with wire mothers
showed the same behavior as
the monkeys with no mother
 Once the monkeys could eat solid foods, they were
taken from their “mothers” for 3 days
 When reunited, the monkeys tended not to venture
off to explore as they usually did, but clung to their
“mothers”
 Harlow claimed that the need for contact and comfort
was stronger than the need to explore
 Even though the monkeys gained weight at the same
rate, the monkeys with wire “mothers” had trouble
with digestion
 Harlow realized that touch was not enough, and his
"ideal mother" was inadequate
 When the now adult monkeys were introduced to
normal monkeys they were extremely anti-social
 Displayed autistic-like behavior, banging their heads and
rocking.
 They were also unable to mate normally
 “Rape Racks”
 “Motherless Mothers”
 The results contradicted the teachings of this time
and the claim of the behaviorist school of psychology
 Harlow concluded that nursing strengthened the
mother-child bond because of the intimate body
contact that it provided
 Believed that contact comfort could be provided by
either mother or father
 He presented his results
Partial Isolation
 Monkeys were raised in
bare wire cages
 Able to see, smell, and
hear other monkeys, but
no physical contact
 Resulted in blank
staring, repetitive
circling in their cages,
and self-mutilation
Total Social Isolation
 monkeys were raised in




isolation chambers
No contact at all with other
monkeys.
“Pit of despair”
Baby monkeys were left
alone for 3, 6, 12, or 24
weeks
Resulted in severely
psychologically disturbed
monkeys
 Harlow tried to restore the monkeys who had been
isolated for six months by placing them with normal
monkeys
 Not successful
 Total social isolation for the first six months of life
produced severe deficits in nearly every aspect of social
behavior
 The monkeys that were isolated and then exposed to
monkeys the same age who were reared normally were
able to only obtain limited recovery of simple social
responses
 Some monkey mothers reared in isolation showed
maternal behavior that was acceptable when forced to
receive infant contact over a period of months
 but showed no further recovery afterwards.
 Surprisingly, when six-month isolates were exposed
to younger monkeys around three months old, they
were able to pretty much complete social recovery for
all the situations tested.
 Some researchers claim Harlow’s experiments as
factors in the rise of the animal liberation movement
 The results of his work confirmed that human beings
need more than just simple physical needs, like
hunger
 we are social beings, seeking the warmth and comfort of
touch, and the company of others
 Suggested the importance of mother/child bonding
 Children need to feel love, acceptance, and affection
from the caregiver.
 He did not regret doing the experiments
 http://muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/harlo
w.htm
 http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Harry_
Harlow
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow