Rhesus Monkey Essay

Early experience affects the intergenerational transmission of infant abuse in rhesus monkeys article summary

The Golden Rule “one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself” is commonly said, but is it commonly practiced. Dario Maestripieri wanted to see if this is true or not in explaining mother abuse by looking at rhesus monkeys. Maestripieri pondered on whether or not abusive parenting in rhesus macaques is transmitted from mothers to daughters or whether transmission occurs through genetic or experiential factors. Looking more in depth to a possible explanation as to why mothers abuse their offspring.

Coming into the study Maestripieri’s prior background knowledge on monkeys and their similar characteristics to humans was a key component in using them in the study. He knew that infant abuse by socially deprived rhesus macaque

That rhesus macaque mothers who abuse their offspring produce daughters who are likely to become abusive mothers themselves. The reasoning for this is due to the monkey’s previous history of abuse and this not being a genetic inheritance from mother to offspring. Showing statistically comparison to the monkeys to humans out come that 20-30% of abused children while be abusers themselves just like the results shown in the study of the monkeys. These results go hand in hand with Maestripieir’s article compared to our class book, Psychology eleventh addition. In the book talking about the topic of deprivation of attachment and then going into detail about experiments, such as Maestripieir’s, that show just how important nurture affects their lives but also future lives. However, it is still not completely known why some abused human children become abusive parents if they have not had a history of abuse. Based off of Dario Maestripieri’s experiment with abuse we see that sometimes the golden rule doesn’t able, even with mothering