What are your thoughts on the Harlows monkeys experiments?

Answer 1

There are at least two frameworks to use to evaluate Harlow's experiments. The first is to think as an American in 2006. The second is to think more broadly as a scientific inquisitor, viewing his experiments at the time they were conducted.

Harlow asked a straightforward question: how maternal behavior and affection affected the development of offspring. As an individual in 2006, with the hindsight of his results, we look at his experiments and say "of course maternal behavior is important! Why would anyone need to do such 'cruel' experiments to find something so obvious!" But it's important to note that we do that with the hindsight of his results. In the middle of the 20th century, when he was working, the answer to this question was NOT obvious, and in fact, this was a time when people still sometimes treated children as property and cheap labor... (Child labor laws were not enacted, federally, until 1938!) His work was instrumental in driving psychologists to pressure parents to reconsider how important love and affection were for developing children.

It's very easy to judge Harlow from the perspective of a modern American. But try to imagine what difficult questions he was addressing - at a time of ignorance. And try to imagine how changed the American psyche would be if we still under-valued the importance of parental love and affection. We should ask ourselves these questions because parental affection is not a given; it can be, culturally speaking, quite labile.

Answer 2

what is the harlows monkeys experience?

Answer 3

They were important at the time, but we know better than to treat monkeys like that now.

Answer 4

It shows that a crappy mother raised a crappy kid. It to me explains why there are so many lousy kids out there.

The worse the parental influence or lack of it the worse the child turns out.

Answer 5

Yes it explains the poor parenting skills of present day parents.

Answer 6

my next door neighbours house.