How important is the touch of a mother?

What do you think is more important for healthy development of an infant? The warm love of a mother or the satisfaction of physiological needs?

In the 1950s, Harry Harlow conducted experiments to see what would happen if baby monkeys had a choice of a warm mother or a mother that only gave them food, but no comfort. These "mothers" were made of wire. One had a bottle that dispensed milk, and the other had a warm blanket wraps around it with space for the monkey to cuddle in. When placed in a room with these two mothers, the monkey spent most of the time with the warm mother and would only quickly run over to the other for milk and then immediately return back to the blanketed one. These monkeys group up to be emotionally stable.

Harlow took this experiment to another level. He took different monkeys and put one in a room to live with the warm mother and one to live with the mother that only provided food.

"When he separated the infants into two groups and gave them no choice between the two types of mothers, all the monkeys drank equal amounts and grew physically at the same rate. But the similarities ended there. Monkeys who had soft, tactile contact with their terry cloth mothers behaved quite differently than monkeys whose mothers were made out of cold, hard wire. Harlow hypothesized that members of the first group benefited from a psychological resource—emotional attachment—unavailable to members of the second. By providing reassurance and security to infants, cuddling kept normal development on track (Harlow, 1959).

The ones that were secluded from the warm "mother" were never able to socialize, once they were adults, with other monkeys. They were very aggressive and weren't able to lead a normal life. This experiment helped to show that infants psychological needs are important to satisfy, rather than just the physiological needs. This experiment also showed the importance of mother/infant attachment and bonding.

Harlow, H.F. (1959) "Love in Infant Monkeys."

Images from http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~adoption/studies/HarlowMLE.htm



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