Harry Harlow and his monkeys

Rules were meant to be broken, so for this blog post imagine that at the top of this page the title reads "animal psychology". Although in this next experiment the test subjects are monkeys it resembles human actions. The Harlow experiment's purpose was to demonstrate the importance of love. In the experiment there are two sets of monkey's. The first set of monkeys were raised by a mother and were given love and affection from an early age. When the monkeys were put into a cage with a fake monkey made out of wires and a fake monkey made out of a soft cloth the monkeys always went to the wire dummy because it was the only source of food. The second group of monkeys were monkeys that were separated from their mother at birth so they were never given any love or affection. When the second group was placed in the cage the monkeys always went to the soft cloth dummy because it was soft, warm, and resembled love and affection. When scared or frightened the second group monkeys always went to the soft cloth mother, and only went to the wire dummy when they wanted food. Many other animals cannot function normally when separated from their mother at an early age. For example, a pig that was never given love or affection panics regularly, while a pig that was given love and affection lives a regular pig life. The Harlow experiment demonstrates that love is essential to maintaing a healthy live. The video below is the experiment itself.