Monkeys In Harlow's Study

In Harlow’s studies, monkeys were raised by a wired mother that is able to feeds them and a clothed mother. He found the baby monkeys would spend more time with the clothed mother since it offered a sense of security to the baby rather than the wired mother that fed them. The discovery of the fact that the sense of security would overshadow the other variables such as nursing enough for the monkey to spend more time with the clothed mother surprised Harlow. Overtime when the monkey was frightened and ran to the clothed mother, the baby would eventually calm down due to the presence of the mother. This is shown when Harlow presents a fear-provoking contraption to the baby. When the monkey sees it the infant runs to the cloth mother. In time the contact with the mother drives away the fear and the monkey starts to threaten the object which demonstrates the sense of security. …show more content…
The monkey’s behavior is to search for comfort and when the wired mother is inside the monkey, who was brought up by the wired mother, still has the same reaction and ignores the mother which doesn’t help control his fear. However, when the clothed mother is inside the monkey heads straight to the mother even though the infant was raised by a wired mother. This experiment shows that the monkey seeks the contact comfort the clothed mother provides and also decreases their fear thus allowing the baby monkey to explore the rest of the room. In conclusion Harlow’s experiment showed the infant seeks the mother who provides sense of security rather than one who only feeds the