Harry Harlow: Study Of Human Developmental Psychology

Psychology Forty Studies #2 CH. 5
DISCOVERING LOVE The human developmental branch of psychology involves the study of human growth and development from birth to death, including physical, cognitive, social, intellectual, perceptual, personality and emotional growth (“Understanding Developmental Psychology,” p 1). One particular developmental psychologist by the name Harry Harlow (1906-1981), is “considered by many to have made the greatest contribution since Freud in studying how our early life experiences affect adulthood” (Hock, 2009, p. 127). In 1958 Harlow, through the use of monkeys and surrogate mothers, conducted a research study on how the initial life experiences later affect adulthood. “Harlow discovered that love and affection

where does it come from? and how does it work? Most psychologists agree with the following statement:
Your experiences as an infant with closeness, touching, and attachment to your mother (or other primary caregiver) have an important influence on your abilities to love and be close to others later in life. If you think about it, what was your first experience with love? For most of you, it was the bond between you and your mother beginning at the moment of your birth. (p. 127).
The Freudian interpretation was believed that “it was the focus around the importance of the breast and the instinctive oral, feeding tendencies during the first year of life” (Freud 's oral stage) (p. 127). Later, the behavioral school countered that theory with the view that all human behavior is associated with the situation in which it occurs and its consequences (127). Furthermore, Harlow questioned exactly what about that connection that was so crucial? His determination to answer these questions influenced him to conduct his own research using

127). “Because Harlow had been working with rhesus monkeys for several years in his studies of learning, it was a simple process to begin his studies of love and attachment with these subjects (p. 127). Biologically, rhesus monkeys are very similar to humans” (p. 127). Additionally, Harlow also believed that the basic responses of the rhesus monkey is similar, if not the same as humans in terms of bonding and affection in infancy (such as nursing, contact, clinging, etc.) (p. 127). During Harlow’s early studies, the infant monkeys were raised in a laboratory with proper human care to ensure the monkeys received an adequate nutritional diet including essential nutrients. Raising the monkeys in a laboratory also effectively protects them from contracting any diseases opposed to them being raised by their monkey mothers (p. 128). Very quickly, Harlow noticed something very peculiar, the baby monkeys became very attached to the cloth pads (cotton diapers) that covered the bottom of their cages. Harlow noticed the monkeys would often cling to the pads and when the cloths were removed for cleaning, the monkeys would become extremely frustrated and agitated (p. 128). This extreme attachment was observed in monkeys as young as a day old and it only grew stronger. Harlow states, “The baby, human or monkey, if it is to survive, must clutch at more than a straw” (p.