Harlow's Studies on Dependency in Monkeys: Implications for Early Childhood Education and Trauma Recovery
Overview
This paper analyzes Harlow's classic dependency experiments with infant monkeys, examining how comfort and security influence attachment and exploration behavior. The author argues that findings from these studies have significant applications for early childhood education practices and trauma recovery interventions, demonstrating that emotional comfort supersedes basic physiological needs in child development.
What this essay covers
- Introduction to Harlow's experiment comparing wire and cloth mother figures and measuring infant attachment preferences
- Analysis of interesting findings from fear and learning environment conditions showing preference for comfort-providing attachment figures
- Applications to early childhood education pedagogy emphasizing approachability and security over basic needs provision
- Implications for supporting traumatized children through trusted caregivers and comfort-based interventions
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Harlow's Studies
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Harlow's Studies
The Harlow's Studies on Dependency in Monkeys experiment was conducted to investigate how children react in different environments. First, the baby monkey is released to an environment where two types of mothers, a wire, and a cloth mother. The scientist is investigating which mother would offer the best comfort to the baby monkey. The wire mother has a feeding bottle while the cloth mother does not meet the feeding need because she has no feeding bottle attached. However, the baby monkey spends most of the time with the cloth mother, even after occasionally feeding the wire mother. This behavior shows that the child's need for comfort surpassed the need to provide. The experiment can understand how children relate to their parents and the kind of treatment that motivates them to venture into new environments.
Interesting Facts
The second and the third parts of the experiment are the most interesting because the baby monkey is released to a frightening and new environment, respectively. After a terrifying robot is unleashed, the baby monkey rushes to the cloth mother for comfort and does not bother to look at the wire mother despite her meeting the perceived essential feeding need (Bornstein, n.d). The baby monkey gains courage and starts threatening the menacing robot. In the third environment, perceived as the learning environment, the baby monkey only runs to the cloth mother to gain confidence before interacting with the environment.