Check out the video about Harlow's mokey experiment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An02zCsVEpY
Whether the baby is attached to the mother just because of food is a debate that has been around for many years.
Harlow's experiment was undoubtly one big step in the procedure of understunding the babies psychology.
And there is also another interesting question. Is the monkey just going to the "cloth mother" because of love? or just to find comfort like a baby would find like in a blanket? And the other question would be: what is love? Isn't love finding comfort?
This are open questions and in my opinion there isn't one answer.
3 comments:
I do believe that the baby monkey was just going to the Wire Mother beause of the food. There was no other reason. And it was only with the Cloth Mother because it was scared and needed comfort. It's as obvious as it looks. The only thing in question here is the "love" part. There are many types of love. I don't think that the baby monkey necessarily "loved" any of those two fake mother monkeys. It went to them because it NEEDED them. Is needing someone/something really love? Depends on how you look at it. It's real mother I think it would love. Mother monkeys take their babies everywhere and do everything with them. But at this age, we're still inexperienced on love itself. There are many different things that go into love and that define love. But I don't really think the baby monkey "loved" either of the fake mother monkeys.
I agree with what Jake says here. The wire mother only provided them with food, so that is why they went to it. But in the case of being scared, the cloth mother provided a sense of protection because it was warm and similar to how their fur would feel. As far as love, everyone needs it, but in this situation, the baby ran to the cloth mother for protection, I don't think it was for love.
i think the most interesting aspect of this study is the fact that the research shows that love and care is a necessary part of survival. the cloth mother represented the care and nurture that a baby needs, and as we saw in this study, the baby monkeys clinged more to these needs rather than food that was provided by the wire mother.
i don't think that food is the only thing necessary for survival, and the results of this study prove that for me. i would rather not know what i was going to eat tomorrow and know that i had people that loved and cared for me than have all the food in the world and no one to care for me or anyone to care for.
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