Harry Harlow’s Research on Maternal Comfort and Rhesus Monkeys

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Harry Harlow’s thorough research on the connection between maternal comfort and rhesus monkeys provides information and knowledge to the reader as an insight into our social and emotional development. In this article, Harlow uses experimental observation of mental and emotional associations of the affectionate ties between the child and the mother. As Harlow says, this is “an instinct incapable of analysis”. Many debates are still circulating concerning research among psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists. Former studies on theoretical associations indicate that the affection of a child is begun not only innately, but by the recognition of the mother’s face, body, and other physical characteristics. Affectional development has recently been relevant in the objective that a newborn’s comfort purely comes from breast feeding (as hunger and thirst are babies main concern). Due to the impossibility of using human infants as test subjects, Harlow began his search for a more apt form of possible subjects. Laboratory animals became the ideal apposite test subject. Harlow commenced his research with rhesus monkeys using the hypothesis that monkey behavior would prove to be a significant enlightenment to the origins of infant maternal affection. Considering motor capabilities are extremely limited for the human infant, monkeys were used subordinately to observe and record development of infancy. An advantage to the experiment was also at hand considering that baby monkeys are generally more coordinated at birth compared to human infants, which lack even semi-accurate coordination and mature at a much slower pace. The first thing that infants emotionally attach to is his or her mother. Subsequently, emotional and social... ... middle of paper ... ...ddling, attitudes about the value or importance of exclusive maternal care, belief’s about the child’s ability to adapt and profit from non-maternal care” (Hock, McBride, & Gnezda, 794). I agree with Harry Harlow as he stated, “All the objective tests we have been able to devise agree in showing that the infant monkey’s relationship to its surrogate mother is a full one. Comparison with the behavior of infant monkeys raised by their real mothers confirms this view.” The content of Harlow’s experiment, especially the resolution, was personally intriguing and insightful to me considering my potential future as a mother and as an individual. This experiment has provided me with knowledge about rhesus monkeys. It is fascinating that even in infanthood, they have an admirable ability to possess and utilize the same emotions and behaviors that human babies exhibit daily.

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