Jessica May
Harry Harlow- The formation of attachment in Rhesus Monkeys
In 1962 Harlow conducted a study on the formation of attachments in Rhesus monkeys. Experiments were undertaken where rhesus monkeys were raised in isolation. They had two ‘surrogate’ mothers. The infant monkeys were placed in a cage with two wire mesh cylinders, each with a face. One cylinder was bare and provided the baby monkey with milk from a teat, while the other was covered with towelling, providing contact and comfort. If food were the cause of attachment then you would expect the monkey to cling to the bare cylinder that supplied the milk. In fact, the monkeys spent most of their time with the towel-covered ‘mother’, and would jump on to this one when frightened, a characteristic of attachment behaviour. In was noticed that the infant monkeys also used the towel-covered cylinder as a secure base for exploration, another characteristic of attachment behaviour. The study showed that simply supplying food is not sufficient for the formation of attachment.
