Harlow's Monkeys Experiment

The study I chose to write about is “Harlow’s Monkey Experiments” (Baker, 2016)

Harlow’s Monkey experiment reinforced the importance of mother-and-child bonding. He suggested that the same results apply to human infants – that the timing is critical when it comes to separating a child from his or her mother. Moreover, it was found that the establishment of a bond between the infant and his or her mother is not purely dependent on the satisfaction of one’s physiological needs such as warmth, safety, food, but also emotional acceptance, love, and affection.

Harlow attended Stanford in 1924, and subsequently became a graduate student in psychology, working directly under Calvin Perry Stone, a well-known animal behaviorist, and Walter Richard Miles, a vision expert,

He would scare the infants and watch as the monkey ran towards the cloth model. Harlow also conducted experiments which isolated monkeys from other monkeys in order to show that those who did not learn to be part of the group at a young age were unable to assimilate and mate when they got older. Harlow’s experiments was terminated in 1985 due to APA rules against the mistreatment of animals as well as humans.According to Haraway, Harlow’s monkeys were compliant and passive willing subjects (Haraway, 1989 p 240). Many of Harlow's experiments are now considered unethical—in their nature as well as Harlow's descriptions of them—and they both contributed to the heightened awareness of the treatment of laboratory animals, and helped propel the creation of today's ethics regulations. The monkeys in the experiment were deprived of maternal affection, potentially leading to what humans refer to as "panic disorders". University of Washington professor Gene Sackett, one of Harlow's doctoral students, stated that Harlow's experiments provided the impetus for the animal liberation movement in the