Harry Harlow

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Harry Frederick Harlow (born October 31, 1905 in Fairfield , Iowa (USA), † December 6, 1981 ) was an American psychologist and behavioral scientist . His experiments on the social behavior of young rhesus monkeys made him one of the most important primate researchers in the history of science; Indirectly, his studies, which were extremely controversial even among specialist colleagues, also provoked an improvement in the ethical guidelines for animal experiments .

Career

Harry Harlow was born Harry Israel, but in 1930 - because of the anti-Semitism that was rampant in the USA at the time - he took his father's middle name and called himself Harry Harlow from then on. He studied psychology at Stanford University in California , completed his doctorate there in 1930 and then moved to the University of Wisconsin in Madison . Within a year he managed to turn an old factory into a primate laboratory, and there he soon began to research the intelligence and social behavior of primates - and this in the same place until his retirement in 1973. In 1951 he was admitted to the National Academy of Sciences , elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1957 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1961.

Research topics

Harlow initially examined the memory of monkeys, among other things, his test animals had to find certain objects hidden in drawers, i.e. open the correct one from several drawers.

He became internationally known when he started using rhesus monkey babies from 1957 to research the basics of mother-child bonding . In experiments, Harlow shows young rhesus monkeys that are put into a cage without their mother, in which they have the choice between two dummies : a wire-made, milk-donating "surrogate mother" and an equally large, cloth-covered "surrogate mother" which does not donate milk. The monkeys only stayed at the milk dispenser to eat, but otherwise cuddled up on the fabric-covered dummy.

At the time, this was definitely news for psychology and child psychology as well, as the habit of avoiding hugs and other intense body contact was widespread, especially with male offspring, not only in the USA. At the same time, these experiments showed that the behavior changes brought about by representatives of behaviorism in rats and pigeons with the help of food rewards are not easily transferable to primates and that they cannot be viewed as a generally valid strategy for behavior formation, because the behavioristic approach blinds everyone Emotions as irrelevant.

In other experiments, young monkeys were raised in different social environments:

  • some animals completely isolated,
  • others only with their mother, and
  • still others with mothers and playmates of the same age.

Monkeys that grew up without playmates often appeared more anxious later than their conspecifics who had grown up with their peers - and animals raised in isolation were later so behaviorally disturbed that they were often no longer able to raise their own young.

Harry Harlow showed in this way that social bonds are extremely important for the emotional development of primates. The British psychoanalyst and psychiatrist John Bowlby credited Harlow for having "saved" the attachment theory and for convincing everyone of the importance of the parent-child relationship .

Fonts (selection)

  • The nature of love . In: American Psychologist. Volume 13, 1958, pp. 673-685, full text
  • The development of affectional patterns in infant monkeys. Determinants of infant behavior. BM Foss, ed., Methuen, London 1961
  • with Margaret Kuenne Harlow: Social Deprivation in Monkeys. In: Scientific American. November 1963, pp. 137-146.
  • with Peggy Harlow: Human Model: Primate Perspective. 1979: Vh Winston ISBN 0470266422
  • The essence of love. In: Otto M. Ewert: Developmental Psychology. Volume 1, Cologne 1972, pp. 129-135
  • with Margaret K. Harlow: Learning to Love. In: Helmut Bonn and Kurt Rohsmanith: parent-child relationship. Darmstadt 1977, pp. 179-204

literature

  • Deborah Blum: The discovery of motherly love. Harry Harlow's legendary monkey experiments. Beltz Verlag, Weinheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-407-85888-7 (= German edition of Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection. Perseus Publishing, 2002, ISBN 0738202789 , as paperback from 2005: ISBN 0738208566 )
  • Deborah Blum: The Monkey Wars . Oxford University Press, 1994
  • Norbert Kühne : Early Development and Upbringing - The Critical Period, in: Teaching Materials Pedagogy Psychology, Stark Verlag, Freilassing 2012

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member History: Harry F. Harlow. American Philosophical Society, accessed September 21, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Deborah Blum: The Discovery of Mother's Love. Harry Harlow's legendary monkey experiments. Beltz-Verlag 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Harlow, Harry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harlow, Harry Frederick (full name); Israel, Harry (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist and behaviorist
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Fairfield, Iowa (USA)
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1981